power
The Energy Gang
Aug 18, 2026 · 1h 10m · 4 min read
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT, argues the U.S. should pursue "energy abundance" — a large expansion of natural gas production and LNG exports — rather than domestic self-reliance, contending that a bigger global gas ecosystem is what actually insulates consumers from price shocks, not less trade. His concrete calls: EQT sees potential for a 60 Bcf/d U.S. natural gas surplus at a $4/MMBtu domestic price (larger still at $5), wants U.S. LNG exports to grow from roughly 20 Bcf/d today toward 100 Bcf/d, and expects total U.S. gas demand to rise 20-40% over the next decade on AI power generation plus LNG buildout. He also puts commercial-scale carbon capture five to ten years out, contingent on hyperscalers paying for it and on finding pure CO2 streams.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → The Energy Capital Podcast · summarized retrospectively
Aug 12, 2026 · 44m · 3 min read
Cyrus Reed, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter's legislative director, argues Texas has out-built mandate states on renewables (roughly 25% wind, 15% solar in H1, near 20GW storage) using a property-rights, energy-only market rather than an RPS — and that Sierra Club's current job is defending that market structure while pushing 'reasonable regulation' (not bans) on data centers and transmission siting. Notable flag: a letter from Chairman Schorstner released the day of recording asks the PUC to deny existing 765kV transmission CCN applications and reform the CCN process next session — Reed says this could delay ERCOT's batch-zero large-load interconnection study, which depends on those lines being in service by 2031. His top two 2027 legislative asks: a data-center mitigation fee/community-benefit-agreement requirement, and a much larger distributed energy resources (DER) market.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → The Energy Capital Podcast · summarized retrospectively
Aug 5, 2026 · 36m · 1 min read
Craig Gordon of Mainspring Energy lays out the case for linear generators — fuel-flexible, fast-ramping (25 seconds min-to-full load), no-water, no-flame power units that he argues fill the gap between grid buildout timelines and near-term data center/industrial load growth. Concrete data points: a 48 MW contract with Utah Municipal Power Agency (built next year), a 12-unit/3 MW fully islanded microgrid with Prologis/Maersk at the Port of Long Beach paired with 18 MWh of batteries, air permits obtained in Texas in under three weeks, and a claimed >90% fleet uptime across commercial operations to date.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → The Energy Gang · summarized retrospectively
Aug 5, 2026 · 1h 09m · 3 min read
Karim Kazami of Exelon argues PJM's capacity market is structurally broken by unprecedented demand growth (25% over four years) and that the fix is letting regulated utilities own generation again alongside competitive IPPs, with regulators picking the cheapest proposal. He cites the latest PJM capacity auction clearing at $775/MW-day uncapped (capped by states at $325, versus $28 a few years ago) and PJM's own warning of a 6.8 GW shortfall against the safe reserve margin, with possible rolling brownouts in central Maryland as soon as next summer. Amy Myers-Jaffe pushes back on rate-design fairness and on why utilities aren't deploying faster-build batteries now instead of waiting on long-lead generation.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → The Energy Capital Podcast · summarized retrospectively
Jul 29, 2026 · 39m · 3 min read
Joseph Vallone, CEO of ChargeScape (the automaker-backed JV connecting EVs to utility grids), argues that America's roughly 6 million EVs already represent a large, underused flexible power resource, with about 1 million bidirectional-capable vehicles equating to roughly 10 gigawatts of exportable capacity — comparable to 10 nuclear plants. He details live commercial programs (TXU free overnight charging in Texas, Con Edison cash-back in New York, Eversource's $25/month in New England, V2G exports powering data centers in Silicon Valley) and flags interconnection rules as the main policy bottleneck slowing scale-up, citing Ford's push to exempt grid-parallel (non-exporting) EVs from interconnection requirements.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → The Energy Capital Podcast · summarized retrospectively
Jul 22, 2026 · 45m · 2 min read
John E. Davis, a fifth-generation West Texas rancher and former Texas House member (R, 1999–2015), describes hosting seven of 42 turbines in the RES-developed Cactus Flats wind project on his family's Concho/Menard county ranch since 2018, arguing wind lease income has become essential, stable cash flow that lets small ranchers keep producing livestock despite drought and volatile cattle/goat prices. No market calls; this is a landowner/policy account, not an investment thesis, though it carries clear implications for renewable developers and rural land aggregators seeking Texas sites.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary →