Recorded on October 2, 2024

Episode 117 of the PetroNerds podcast is part one of a two-part PetroNerds special on the state of ESG policies and climate politics with Paul Tice. Trisha Curtis, CEO of PetroNerds, is joined by guest Paul Tice, author, NYU Stern Professor, and Fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics. If you have been looking for a substantive podcast that gets into the politics of ESG and the current election, this is it. Trisha and Paul cover the gauntlet of issues surrounding investing and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and politics in the energy space, with the thread being Paul’s new book, The Race to Zero: How ESG Investing Will Crater the Global Financial System.

In part one, Trisha and Paul cover the SEC rule on climate, and Paul explains the outsized role of weather and transition risks, along with the increase in lawsuits against oil and gas that the SEC admits will happen. He gets into the incredible pressure on the oil and gas industry and what the 806-page SEC rule on climate actually does and is intended to do. They talk about the Fed, climate, and politics, and Trisha asks Paul where we are in the ESG timeline spectrum or stage. Paul says we are in the end stage or the enforcement stage of the Paris Agreements and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which have not actually been fully ratified by both branches of the U.S. Congress.

Trisha asks Paul to get into manufacturing and utilities and the “transition risk” and the impact of this SEC rule on climate on these industries, their need for energy, and their ability to make things. They talk about the ability of U.S. companies to compete, with Trisha referencing Germany and the fact that half of their auto manufacturing capacity is currently idle. Paul gets into intermittent power, higher prices, less reliable power, outsourcing manufacturing, and companies having to get their own power with an “every man for himself” approach because they cannot rely on the grid.

Paul takes on politics here, explaining that these green climate policies are being pushed through by undemocratic means, largely by the left and the Democratic Party. Trisha and Paul close part one of this two-part PetroNerds special by talking about the themes of the book and whether oil and gas do better under a Democrat or Republican. The old thinking that oil does better under a Democrat needs to be reassessed in the age of aggressive ESG and climate policies.

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