Energi Talks: Recent Episodes
Markham Hislop
Journalist Markham Hislop interviews leading energy experts from around the world about the energy transition and climate change.
Markham interviews Marla Orenstein, director of the Canada West Foundation’s Natural Resources Centre.
Markham interviews Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce since 2021. Before that, she spent more than two decades as a business columnist for various media outlets.
Markham interviews Isabel Al-Dhahir, Senior Analyst, Thematic Intelligence at GlobalData, which recently released its “Critical Minerals” report.
Markham interviews Carter Boyle is a consultant at 1898 & Co., a subsidiary of global engineering firm Burns & McDonnell.
Markham interviews the outspoken but very well-informed Joe Anglin, former Wildrose MLA from 2012 to 2014, head of the Lavesta Area Group that opposed costly transmission projects over the past 20 years, now a lawyer and consultant for companies hoping to build wind and solar projects in Alberta.
Markham interviews Richard Allen, chairman of Australia's United H2 Ltd. The company claims to be the world’s largest hydrogen conglomerate, with investments in 37 companies.
Markham interviews Professor Shaun Fluker of the University of Calgary faculty of law about Sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867 that sets out the powers of the provincial and federal governments.
Markham interviews Max Fawcett of the National Observer about his column, “Suncor waves the white flag on climate change.”
Markham interviews Alberta energy economist David Gray.
Video interview with David: Albertans paying double what they should for electricity?
Markham interviews Dr. Kevin Hodder, University of Alberta, whose team is participating in Alberta Innovates' Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge.
Markham interviews Jean-Denis Charlebois, chief economist, Canada Energy Regulator, about the net-zero modelling for oil and gas in "Canada’s Energy Future 2023."
Markham interviews Bill Whitelaw, managing director, Strategy & Business Development at geoLOGIC Systems Ltd. & JWN Energy, and author of the Troy Media op-ed, “Canadian oil and gas sector misunderstands the power of narratives.”
Markham interviews Dr. Lisa Young, professor of political science at the University of Calgary and author of the What Now?! Newsletter about Alberta politics.
Markham interviews researcher Megan Egler of the Parkland Institute, author of the report, "Past Due: Tallying the Costs of Oil and Gas Cleanup in Canada," for Environmental Defence Canada.
Markham interviews Aaron Cosbey, development economist with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and co-author of “Setting the Pace: The Economic Case for Managing the Decline of Canada’s Oil and Gas Production.”
Markham interviews Justin Locke, managing director of Rocky Mountain Institute’s Global South Program.
Markham interviews Peter White, CEO and co-Founder, Rethink Technology Research, about his new "Geothermal forecast to 2050."
Markham interviews Gregor Macdonald, energy journalist and author of the Gregor Letter.
Markham interviews Cynthia Leach, assistant chief economist, RBC, about her co-authored report, Canada's Conundrum: Three Ways To Address The World's Gas & Climate Crises
Markham interviews economist David Gray, who helped designed the deregulation of Alberta power generation in the late 1990s.
Markham interviews Flavio Volpe, president of the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association about The Arrow, the first Canadian build concept EV and many other topics in this wide-ranging conversation.
Markham interviews Dr. Joe Vipond, an outspoken Calgary ER physician, who explains what parents can do to protect their children the flu, COVID-19, and RSV.
Markham interviews freelance investigative journalist Justin Ling, author of the substack "Bug-eyed and Shameless," about his latest missive, "The Disinformation Nations: The world information wars are ramping up, and we're not ready to fight."
Markham interviews Dr. Cristina Penasco, lecturer Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and an author of "10 Principles for policymaking in the energy transition: Lessons from experience," which was undertaken by the Economics of Energy Innovation and System Transition project at Exeter University.
Markham interviews Mark Cameron, Vice-President, External Relations, Oil Sands Net-Zero by 2050 Pathways Alliance. He was recently in Egypt at COP27.
Markham interviews David Doherty, head of oil and renewable fuels, BloombergNEF, and head of the team that produced the report titled "Global Oil Outlook: Peak, decline and plateau."
Markham interviews Shannon K. O’Neill, deputy director of studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, and Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies. She is the author of “The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter.”
Markham interviews Gerard Kreeft, author of “The 10 Commandments of the Energy Transition.”
Markham interviews Justin Rangooni, executive director for Energy Storage Canada, about the organization's new report, "Energy Storage: A Key Pathway to Net Zero in Canada."
Markham interviews Karthik Subramanian, a research associate with Lux Research and a co-author of “Can we make it to 1.5 °C? A breakdown of IPCC's climate mitigation plan.” He joined us from Amsterdam.
Markham interviews Mel Bergsneider of Allume Energy, an Australian company with operations in the USA, about micro-grids for multi-family dwellings and how utilities are coping with technology, market, consumer, and regulatory change.
Markham interviews Chloe Herrera, an analyst at Lux Research who leads the Energy Storage team’s coverage of battery technology for electric vehicles and stationary storage.
Markham interviews Paul Martin, a chemical engineer with a 30 year history of working with hydrogen and a member of the Hydrogen Science Coalition.
Markham interviews Colin Guldimann, economist with RBC, and author of “The Price of Power: How to cut Canada's Net Zero electricity bill.” Link to the report: https://thoughtleadership.rbc.com/the-price-of-power-how-to-cut-canadas-net-zero-electricity-bill/
Link to the report David mentions during the interview: https://transitionaccelerator.ca/techno-economics-of-a-new-hydrogen-value-chain-supporting-heavy-duty-transport/
Link: https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-projects-zero-emissions-medium-and-heavy-duty-electric-trucks-will-be-cheaper-diesel
Markham interviews Ethan Zindler, head of Americas for BloombergNEF and lead author on a new report, "Energy Transition Investment Trends 2022: Tracking global investment in the low-carbon energy transition."
Markham interviews Olivia Chen of the International Energy Agency about the recently released World Energy Employment report.
Markham interviews Dr. Mark Jaccard, director and distinguished professor with the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, and co-author of the Sept 23 Policy Options article, "Getting Canada’s proposed clean electricity regulations right to reverse our poor climate performance"?
Markham interviews Dr. Bentley Allan, research director at the Transition Accelerator and an associate professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He’s the lead author of “A Roadmap for Canada’s Battery Value Chain: Building a national strategy for critical minerals and green battery metals.”
Markham interviews Kevin Birn, chief analyst, Canadian oil markets, S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Markham interviews development economist Aaron Cosbey of the International Institute for Sustainable Development about his latest deep dive, “Why Canada Needs to Plan for a Steep Decline in Global Oil Demand.”
Markham interviews Katherine Blunt, about her new book, "California Burning." She covers renewable energy and utilities for The Wall Street Journal and is a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Markham interviews Evan Pivnick, Clean energy program manager with Clean Energy Canada, whose new report, “Canada’s New Economic Engine,” explores how Canada can successfully build an EV battery supply chain in order to become a North American battery powerhouse.
Markham interviews Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director, California Solar & Storage Association, about the critical role played by rooftop solar and battery storage in supporting California's strained power grid during the crippling heat wave of the first few weeks of September, 2022.
Markham interviews Henry Sanderson, Executive Editor, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and author of the new book, "Volt Rush, the Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green," about why the battery industry needs to invest $200 billion in gigafactories to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and energy storage by 2030.
Markham interviews Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Climate Institute, about his August 15, 2022 op-ed in the Toronto Star titled, “Four ways the Inflation Reduction Act can accelerate Canada‘s clean energy transition.”
Markham interviews Prof. Gregory Nemet, professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs, about technology change, the energy transition, and his book, "How Solar Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation."
Markham interviews Angelo DiCaro, research director for Unifor, Canada's largest private sector union organization, about its new report “Navigating the road ahead – rebuilding Canada’s powerhouse auto sector."
Markham interviews Dr. Neha Patankar, energy modeller and researcher for the REPEAT Project at Princeton University.
Markham interviews Sean McCoy, assistant professor, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary about a new report from the Transition Accelerator titled, "Review of Carbon-Dioxide Storage Potential in Western Canada: Blue Hydrogen Roadmap to 2050" that he co-authored with Richard Hares and David B. Layzell.
Markham interviews Jonah Messinger, energy analyst, The Breakthrough Institute, co-author of "Advancing Nuclear Energy: Evaluating Deployment, Investment, and Impact In America’s Clean Energy Future."
Markham interviews Dembicki, investigative climate reporter and author of a July 18 Narwhal article, “How a conservative U.S. network undermined Indigenous energy rights in Canada.” He also has a new book, 'The Petroleum Papers' out in September.
Markham interviews economist Chris Bataille about his new paper, "How the sector can decarbonize operations and develop new net zero products," for the Canadian Climate Institute. Link: https://climateinstitute.ca/scoping-papers/
Markham interviews Shazan Siddiqi, technology analyst with the EV team at IDTechEx, about the new report, “Battery Swapping for Electric Vehicles 2022-2032: Technology, Players and Forecasts."
Markham interviews Warren Chung, professional engineer and president of Well Resources Inc., located in Calgary about his company's commercially viable process to remove asphaltines and other carbon-intense residue from Alberta oil sands bitumen.
Find more information about the report here: https://www.aeso.ca/market/net-zero-emissions-pathways/
Mark Jaccard is the author of the 2020 book, “The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success: Overcoming Myths that Hinder Progress.”
Markham interviews Dr. Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development, Center for Sustainable Development with Brookings Institution based in Washington, DC, about his Brookings policy brief: “A Global Sustainability Program: Lessons from the Marshall Plan for addressing climate change"
Markham interviews Matthew Stewart, director in the Economics and Financial Advisory group, at Deloitte Canada about the firm's new report, “The Turning Point.”
Markham interviews the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s natural resources minister, about Canada and the global energy transition. They talk about technology disruption, electrifying Canada's economy while doubling or tripling power generation, what the transition means for energy workers, what to do about Alberta and the Canadian oil and gas industry, and the role of hydrogen in the energy future.
Markham interviews Werner Antweiler, director, Sauder School of Business Prediction Markets, associate professor and chair, Strategy and Business Economics Division, chair in International Trade Policy, University of British Columbia.
Link to Dr. Ahmed's blog post: https://rethinkdisruption.com/next-economy-growth-degrowth/
Interview with Chris Turner, National Business Book Award winner and author of the new book, “How to Be a Climate Optimist,” which overflows with possibility in a moment of great panic, upheaval and uncertainty over a world on fire.
Markham interviews Paul Zummo, manager of policy research and analysis, American Public Power Association.
Markham interviews economist Jason Dion, Mitigation Research Director, Canadian Climate Institute, about the new report, “The Big Switch.” Making Canada’s electricity system bigger, cleaner, and smarter.
Markham interviews John Rilett, vice president, innovation and cleantech at The Delphi Group, and one of the authors of the report, “Alberta Energy Transition” for Calgary Economic Development.
Markham interviews Geoffry Cann, an oil industry veteran, expert on digital technology, and author of the new book, “Carbon, Capital, and the Cloud: A Playbook for Digital Oil and Gas.”
Markham interviews long-time energy journalist Llewellyn King, host of PBS' White House Chronicle, about his storied 66-year career, the global energy crisis, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Markham interviews Albert Cheung, head of analysis for BloombergNEF about his recent commentary, “Hold Your Nerve: Energy Transition Risks and Red Herrings in 2022.”
Markham interviews Dr. Gretchen Bakke, assistant professor, university of Toronto and author of "The Grid."
Markham interviews Jennie Jorgenson, energy systems engineer with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and the principal researcher for the latest phase of the Storage Futures Study, which modelled the effects of large-scale adoption of storage technologies on power grids.
Markham interviews Dr. Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg energy and climate journalist, about ExxonMobil announcing an “ambition for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050” on Jan. 18.
Markham interviews energy systems modeller Dr. Taco Niet, a professor in the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, British Columbia.
Markham interviews Dr. Gordon Laxer, Political Economist, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, founding Director and former head of Parkland Institute from 1996-2011, and co-author of a new study, “Posing as Canadian: How Big Foreign Oil captures Canadian energy and climate policy.”
Markham interviews Dr. Allison Macfarlane, director of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2012 to 2014, about her July, 2021 Foreign Affairs op-ed, "Is Nuclear Power the Way Forward to Combat the Climate Crisis?"
Markham interviews Stacy Noblet, senior director, Transportation Electrification, for global consultancy ICF, about her recent blog post, “How electric vehicles can drive our clean transportation future.”
Markham interviews Prof. Matthew Hoffmann, co-director of the environmental governance lab at the University of Toronto.
Markham interviews Dr. Michal Meidan, director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and author of the paper “China’s power crisis: Long-term goals meet short-term realities.”
Markham interviews Adam Dorr of RethinkX, an independent think tank co-founded by Tony Seba and James Arbib, about the new study, "Rethinking Climate Change."
Markham interviews Kingsmill Bond of Carbon Tracker about a new report, "Spiralling Disruption," which describes seven feedback loops that are driving disruption in the energy system.
Markham interviews Dr. Mark Jaccard, professor and director of the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University and appointed to the 9-member expert committee that advised BC Hydro during the recent Phase 2 review.
Markham interviews Jarod Kelly, principal energy systems analyst at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, about GREET (Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy Use in Technologies) model that the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board - and 43,000 other users - use to compare vehicle emissions in the United States.
Markham interviews Andy Frank, an energy efficiency industry expert, president of Sealed, a retrofitting company based in New York, and a board member of Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
Markham interviews economist Kevin Birn of IHS MarkIt about the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero initiative launched on June 9.
Markham interviews Emil Dimanchev, PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, about his co-authored paper, “The role of hydropower reservoirs in deep decarbonization policy,” recently published in the journal Science Direct.
Markham interviews Dr. Douglas Macdonald, senior lecturer emeritus, School of the Environment, University of Toronto, about his book, CARBON PROVINCE, HYDRO PROVINCE: THE CHALLENGE OF CANADIAN ENERGY AND CLIMATE FEDERALISM.
Markham interviews US Energy Association acting executive director Sheila Hollis and senior program coordinator Elise Voorhis about the agency's recent work helping Uganda modernize and grow the country's electricity system.
Markham interviews TD Economics economist Francis Fong, co-author of "Don’t Let History Repeat: Canada’s Energy Sector Transition and the Potential Impact on Workers.
Markham interviews Dr. Chris Bataille, an associate researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, located in Paris.
Markham interviews Behnam Zakeri, research scholar with the Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group about his co-authored paper, "Policy options for enhancing economic profitability of residential solar photovoltaic with battery energy storage."
Markham interviews economist Dr. Vaibhav Chaturvedi of India's Council on Energy, Environment, and Water about his recent paper, "Peaking and Net-Zero for India’s Energy Sector CO2 Emission."
Markham interviews Dr. Christina Hoicka, associate professor in sustainable energy economics, about her team's work developing a model to explain the diffusion of low-carbon innovations.
Markham interviews Prof. Mark Winfield, an expert in sustainable energy and environmental policy, about the crisis in Ontario's electricity, including the absence of provincial government climate and energy policy.
Markham interviews utility veteran Val Jensen about the electric utility of the future. New technologies, changing consumer needs, and climate policies are just some of the forces transforming the current utility business model.
Markham interviews Steve Pacala about the co-authored study, "Accelerating Decarbonization of the United States Energy System," which identifies key technological and socio-economic goals that must be achieved to put the United States on the path to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The report presents a policy blueprint outlining critical near-term actions for the first decade (2021-2030) of this 30-year effort, including ways to support communities that will be most impacted by the transition.
Markham interviews Barbara Finamore, senior attorney and Asia Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, about her Oxford Energy Institute article, "Clean tech innovation in China and its impact on the geopolitics of the energy transition."
Markham interviews economist Prof. Jim Williams of the University of San Francisco about his co-authored paper, Carbon-Neutral Pathways for the United States.
Markham interviews economist Jason Dion of the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices about his new report, "CANADA'S NET ZERO FUTURE: Finding our way in the global transition."
Markham interviews Dr. Johannes Urpelainen about how China has become the leading financer of wind, solar, and other green energy projects. They also discuss China's Belt and Road Initiative and why China continues to finance and operate coal power plants in developing countries around the world.
Markham interviews Dr. Danny Cullenward, Stanford energy economist and lawyer, and co-author with Dr. David G. Victor, of the new book, "Making climate policy work."
Markham interviews Ben Kujala, director of power planning for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council based in Portland, Oregon. They discussed the extent to which natural gas should be relied upon as a "bridge fuel” as the Pacific NW considers the right mix of wind, solar, storage, nuclear and hydropower to provide carbon-free energy at an affordable and reliable level.
Markham interviews Dr. Thomas Rowlands-Rees of BloombergNEF about US greenhouse gas emissions falling, but only because of the switch away from coal in the power generation sector.
Markham debates climate activist and academic Seth Klein about his new book, "A GOOD WAR: MOBILIZING CANADA FOR THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY," which argues that governments should direct economic activity to lower greenhouse gas emissions just like Canada did to support its military commitment during World War II.
Markham interviews Heymi Bahar, the International Energy Agency's senior analyst for renewable energy markets and policy and lead author for "Renewables 2020 Analysis and forecast to 2025." Correction: the study was released on Nov. 10, not Nov. 17 as Markham says at the start of the conversation.
John's column that we discuss on the show: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-power-kemp/column-chinas-rise-and-u-s-fears-about-decline-kemp-idUSKBN2762DR
Markham interviews Dr. Gunther Bachmann, a former director of the German Council for Sustainable Development, about the challenges posed by his country's energy transition plan, the Energiewende.
Markham interviews "rethinker" Tony Seba about his study, "Rethinking Energy 2020-2030: 100% Solar, Wind and Batteries is Just the Beginning."
Markham interviews Prof. Josh Rhodes of the University of Texas at Austin about big changes coming to global electricity markets. He uses examples drawn from the United States and Markham contributes information from the reporting he has done about Canadian (especially British Columbia and Alberta) markets.
Markham interviews Dr. James Sallee, economist and associate professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics, University of California, Berkeley.
Markham in conversation with New York-based Ed Crooks, chair of Americas for Wood Mckenzie, about what a Joe Biden presidency might mean for the American energy sector, including oil and gas.
Markham interviews Sam Abuelsamid, EV analyst for Guidehouse Research, about Amazon's Oct. 8 announcement it will buy 10,000 custom-designed Rivian electric delivery vans, deployment starting in just 2 years. Combined with other technical and process innovations, the e-van will be "the future of last mile delivery," says Amazon.
Markham interviews Dr. Kai-Philipp Kairies - CEO of ACCURE, a German battery intelligence data analytics firm - about Tesla's Sept. 22 "battery day." Tesla's key engineering and scientific advances explained in layman's terms by a battery scientist.
Markham interviews Kingsmill Bond, London-based energy strategist for Carbon Tracker, about the recent release of the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2020. Bottom line: peak oil demand is either here or arriving shortly.
Bloomberg energy and climate journalist Dr. Akshat Rathi joins Markham Hislop to discuss China's Sept. 23 announcement it will reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Not quite the same as net-zero emissions, says Rathi, but progress nonetheless.