 Trade wars, tepid oil prices, lackluster renewables earnings, LNG-fueled geopolitics, Wall Street’s anti-ESG backlash: There will be plenty of news for energy executives to digest when they gather in Houston next week for their biggest annual meeting. At last year’s CERAWeek, I mainly heard frustration with the Biden administration’s freeze on LNG permitting and excitement about the AI- and EV-driven surge in electricity demand. To some extent, those concerns have now flipped: US President Donald Trump is eager to open the taps on LNG exports, and the sudden success of China’s low-cost DeepSeek AI platform has raised doubts about how much more power is really needed. But in general, the global energy market today is far more turbulent than it was last year. As much as Trump touts himself as a friend to the oil industry, many of his actions in office so far — including today’s new tariffs on Mexico and Canada — do the industry more harm than good. Conversely, while Trump is no friend to renewables, analysts expect clean energy investment to continue growing, and huge investors like Brookfield Asset Management have billions of dollars on standby for wind and solar. I’ll also be very keen to hear what the industry thinks of Trump’s decision to cozy up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and throw Ukraine under the bus — if you’re at CERAWeek and think there’s a viable path for new US energy investment in Russia, come find me. I’m especially excited for this year’s conference because Semafor is bringing its outstanding live journalism series there for the first time. On the evening of Monday, Mar. 10, over cocktails, I’ll grill NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum and Jeff Gustavson, vice president of lower carbon energies at Chevron. We’ll also hear from Lauren Riley, chief sustainability officer at United Airlines, and my esteemed colleague Justin Worland, senior climate correspondent at TIME. It will be really fun and seats are almost full, so please RSVP here to join us! See you in Houston soon. |