Semafor World Economy Summit: Views from policymakers and CEOs on the future of global energy

On energy policy required: “You want to make sure that all forms of energy have a chance to compete,” said Nelson. “So the government’s picking winners and losers in energy supply likely doesn’t give us the choices we need longer term both to meet the demand of today and build a system for the future.”

On AI and energy: AI data centers require a lot of “reliable, affordable energy” and have to access that energy supply in a more efficient way by leveraging AI, Nelson said. “The pace of those two things together is yet to be determined.”

On potential US tariffs on copper: Henry called tariffs a “vexed question,” but said the policies could juice onshore production in various sectors. “In my sector, these are particularly big long-term bets, to get a new copper mine developed or a new copper smelter,” he said, noting that these multibillion-dollar projects take years to complete.

“Trying to do that on the back of an executive order tariff can be hard,” he said. “We’d have to wait to see, well, how would any tariff be enacted? Is it through executive order? Is it through legislation? What’s the nature of the tariff? And so on.”

Henry said the much bigger potential impact would be the impact of tariffs and counter-tariffs and the disruption of global trade on global growth. That, he said, “will most certainly weigh on commodity demand, and that will impact not just copper, it will be the whole basket of commodities.”

On AI use in mining: Henry said that one of the things he is most excited about in terms of AI “is we actually don’t yet realize just how big the potential,” adding there are several opportunities to apply AI and robotics in what is seen as a traditional industry like mining.

On President Gustavo Petro’s environmental policies: Duque criticized Petro’s environmental policies, saying the president’s plan to stop oil and gas exploration gives the wrong signals to the market. In response to Petro’s call to buy natural gas from Qatar, Duque said: “Imagine the cost of importing oil and gas from Qatar. ... Those decisions are absolutely insane.”

On what’s driving demand in the company’s unique market: “We’ll see some data center growth, but really ours has to do with broad electrification. If you think about vehicle electrification, EVs, both passenger and fleets, in the New York City region, as well as electrification of heating as customers move away from oil and natural gas… that’s really driven by New York State’s very aggressive and ambitious policy.” Energy requests from buildings today are 20% or 25% more than five years earlier, he said.

On how tariffs affect energy security: “The way we have for decades, we’re gonna have to work through it. It’s another constraint for sure.”

On ConEd’s energy mix going forward: Thirty percent of New York state’s power comes from renewables at present, so the state’s goal of hitting 70% renewables by 2030 is “really unachievable by everybody’s sort of reckoning,” Cawley said.

“We are really just supporters and enablers of the generation in the state,” Cawley said, adding that the company will “move toward a cleaner portfolio” but that “it’ll take time.”

On AI’s impact on labor: “Ten years from now, we’re going to see a world increasingly powered by AI. It’s going to reshape the way productivity is defined in the global economy,” he said. “We’re going to see the world increasingly built by robots,” leading to a reallocation of labor.

On Trump’s plan to power AI data centers with coal instead of clean energy: Maloney said that Microsoft lost 6% of its market cap because it missed its forecasts on data centers — not because of the lack of chips, but because “they can’t get their power. “We’re just in an absolute arms race for electrons because everyone realizes those electrons are the input to all their future prosperity,” he said.

Protecting the Fed’s independence: “Reinforcing the Fed’s independence is a critically important issue,” Lucas said, expressing support for bipartisan legislation to ensure the central bank’s autonomy.

While a recent Supreme Court ruling in support of a Trump administration executive order allows the president to remove members of independent agencies, Lucas said he doesn’t expect the Fed to be affected. “I’m not so certain that it would apply to the chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

On defunding the CFPB: The House Financial Services Committee has been directed to find $1 billion savings in federal regulatory agencies it oversees, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Fed. Lucas said almost every Republican has pledged to dismantle the CFPB and to reduce some of the financial responsibilities put on the Fed. “There will be savings,” he said. “If you believe in the market and having less interference from the federal government, which should consequently mean a little more stability and certainty, I think this will be a great effort on our part.”

On a potential US-UK trade deal: Reeves said she’s heard from the Trump administration that it is “keen to do a deal.” She said the two countries have “balanced trade,” adding, “What we hear from the US administration is that they are keen to do a deal with the UK reflecting the closeness of that relationship.” Reeves said that the UK is willing to reduce trade barriers over the concerns that the US has: “This Labour government very much believes in free trade.”

On the UK as a business hub: Reeves touted the UK’s “political, financial, [and] economic stability” as a reason for companies to invest in the country amid broader geopolitical volatility.

On the UK’s post Brexit-relationship with the EU: “We want to deepen and strengthen our trade relationships, but also our defense and security relationships, with our European colleagues,” she said. She highlighted areas where they could reduce barriers that constrain businesses, such as standards recognition.

On how to pay for increased defense spending: The UK’s increase in defense spending has been the country’s largest sustained rise since the end of the Cold War, Reeves said, noting that the country now spends 2.5% of its GDP on defense, more than NATO’s 2% target. She said the country made “the right decision” to cut its international development spending, “given the challenges that we face as a country.”

On whether the US is in a recession: “I don’t think so. We could be before long, but I don’t think we are right now.”

On impacts of tariffs: Dell’Osso said he didn’t think tariffs were going to have real impacts on the company’s liquified natural gas exports at present. “Each cargo of LNG is likely to get traded anywhere from six to 10 times before it’s created, until it’s actually delivered somewhere. And so all of that trading will allow for everyone to feel good about where they’re buying gas from and where they’re not,” he said. Cargos that may have otherwise been sold to China are getting sold to Europe instead, he said.

Commitment to carbon neutrality: Dell’Osso said he doesn’t plan to stop Expand Energy’s ESG efforts, even though the Trump administration is no longer prioritizing climate change work. “I think environmental stewardship still matters, and we should all endeavor to have as clean of business as we can have,” he said. “We have a relatively straightforward path to creating a very low-carbon molecule. We think that’s valuable and know that it’s valuable to people who buy LNG from the US.” Dell’Osso said investors also continue to care about a low-carbon footprint.

On meeting Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador: “He was clearly traumatized by that experience,” Van Hollen said of his meeting with wrongly deported migrant Ábrego last week. ​“He’s been in a total news blackout and unable to speak to anybody, his wife, his lawyers.” The Democratic senator criticized President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele for refusing to facilitate Ábrego’s return to the US, accusing both leaders of “lying through their teeth” on the issue, he said. Van Hollen also accused El Salvador of being paid by the Trump administration to hold Ábrego, calling it “a fee-for-service deal.”

On putting economic pressure on El Salvador: Van Hollen called on American tourists not to visit El Salvador, and instead go to other Central American countries. “Vote with your feet,” he said. He said he has also asked Maryland’s state pension funds head to look at whether the state is invested in companies that do business in El Salvador.

“I keep saying I’m not vouching for Ábrego García the man, I’m vouching for his constitutional rights, because all of our rights are at stake now,” he said.

FTC inquiry into alleged censorship by social media platforms: Ferguson raised the prospect of further action in response to the 2021 removal of President Donald Trump from social media platforms. “I’m not saying there was collusion” among the social media platforms that took down Trump’s account as he vocally challenged his 2020 election loss, Ferguson said. “But the coincidence of this suggests maybe purely conscious parallelism, or collusion. And if it’s the latter, it’s a real problem.” He added that there were no investigations into what happened around 2020 and 2021, “when all these platforms seemed to march in lockstep on an issue for which there isn’t objective inputs.”

“This is the most pro-free speech administration of my lifetime, coming on the heels of the most anti-free speech administration in my lifetime,” Ferguson said.

He raised concerns about the possibility of social media platforms banding together to determine rules on speech. “I am not the censorship police, but I am sort of the market power police,” he said.

Balancing antitrust enforcement and innovation: “I want vigorous antitrust enforcement,” Ferguson said. “But I also recognize the importance of M&A activity to American economic growth and innovation.” He said the FTC is now taking a different approach than the Biden administration’s active antitrust dockets. “The ideological opposition against deal flow that the previous administration had is over,” he said.

Meta antitrust case: Ferguson declined to speculate about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent meeting with Trump. Zuckerberg reportedly tried to lobby the administration to drop the FTC antitrust case against Meta’s acquisition of Instagram. However, Ferguson did say he’s “very confident” about the FTC’s chances in the ongoing trial.