In this episode of the Energy Perspectives Podcast, recorded on-site at Permian Energy Dialogues in 2024, Beth Garza sits down with James Lackey, Regional Vice President at Xcel Energy, to examine how utilities are responding to unprecedented load growth in the Permian Basin.

As electrification accelerates across oil and gas operations and broader industrial demand continues to rise, utilities are confronting system expansion timelines that strain traditional planning, permitting, and regulatory processes. Lackey outlines what it means to plan for a system that could double in size within a few years, while still maintaining reliability and affordability for customers.

From multi-gigawatt demand projections to customers waiting years for service, this conversation captures how infrastructure bottlenecks and regulatory sequencing challenges are already shaping investment decisions, customer behavior, and grid economics across the region.

Key Themes:

• Rapid system growth and compressed planning timelines

• Multi-gigawatt load driven by oil and gas electrification

• Interconnection delays and near-term economic impacts

• Customer self-generation and microgrid adoption

• Misalignment between generation and transmission approval processes

Register for upcoming Energy Dialogues forums: https://www.energy-dialogues.com

In this episode, Jason Bennett, Department Chair - Global Projects, Partner at Baker Botts L.L.P., sits down with Bret Estep, Vice President, Development at Tenaska, and Reid Calhoon, CEO of Climate Wells, live from the Carbon Solutions Forum 2025 in La Jolla. Together they explore how the energy industry is aligning profitability and decarbonization through infrastructure innovation, market incentives, and pragmatic investment strategies.

Key insights from the episode include:

• Profitability as a sustainability driver: why lasting decarbonization must include a viable business case and market incentives.
• Voluntary carbon markets gaining maturity: how independent verification and corporate demand are reshaping private-sector climate action.
• Infrastructure timelines and investment realism: balancing ambition with the operational realities of large-scale, low-carbon project development.
• Methane reduction as near-term impact: addressing legacy wells and emissions-intensive fields through practical, profitable solutions.
• Collaboration over polarization: why inclusive, cross-sector approaches remain the most effective path to "more energy, fewer emissions."

In this episode, recorded on-site at the 2024 North American Gas Forum (NAGF), Carolyn Kissane, Assistant Dean MS in Global Affairs, Global Security, Conflict and Cybercrime at NYU sits down with Kevin Skillern, Managing Partner at Energy Innovation Capital to explore why we're currently in a "golden age of innovation" for the energy sector and what it means for investors, operators, and policymakers.

Key insights from the episode include:

• Energy as the foundation of modern prosperity and the need to balance growth, emissions reduction, and security.

• Affordability and reliability as non-negotiables, keeping secure supply at the center of decarbonization strategies.

• Methane mitigation as the fastest lever: how large-scale detection can cut global emissions by 4–5% with technologies ready to scale today.

• Shifting supply chains and breakthrough technologies, from rare earths outside China to next-gen batteries driving 20–30% cost reductions.

👉 Register for upcoming Energy Dialogues forums: https://energy-dialogues.com/events/