What you’ll get in this episode of Energy Thinks

How can oil and gas leaders like you meet the Problem Solvers where they are? Listen to my new conversation with Kevin Krausert, CEO and co-founder at Avatar Innovations, an energy technology venture studio operating in both Calgary and Houston. (Disclosure: I sit on the advisory board for Avatar, because I share Kevin’s vision of the industry as central to meeting the generational opportunity of The Moment.)

In this episode you’ll hear about

* The opportunity our industry has during the current “five-year hangover” following cleantech euphoria

* Kevin’s three-pillar vision of an energy future led by you

* The hazards of over-relying on a purely disruptive energy future

Why Kevin?

Kevin leads Avatar Innovations, at the sweet spot of energy opportunity: the center of a Venn diagram of innovation, investment, and infrastructure.

Some of Kevin’s insights

* On what cleantech euphoria got wrong: “Five years later, we’ve woken up and realized that the Silicon Valley obsession with disruption is not going to work in energy. You can’t disrupt your way to a new energy future. You can only build it.”

* On the secret sauce of Avatar’s oil-and-gas-centric innovation: “You have to do technology development and leadership development at the same time. … If you do technology development without leadership development, culture will eat technology for breakfast every day of the week.”

* On Canada’s Avatar for The Moment: “There’s probably no one person that amalgamates this moment than Mark Carney, our new prime minister. He was really the high priest of the net-zero finance movement, but now he’s prime minister of the world’s third largest oil exporter. [He leads] at a time when the easiest and fastest way to turn around Canada’s economy and productivity challenges is going to be through doubling down on oil and gas.”

Bonus content!

Applications for the Avatar 2026 program are now open for the cohort starting in February 2026. Check out the program and consider encouraging two high-potential leaders in your organization to apply.

Kevin’s podcast interview on The Climate Cycle: “Rewiring Risk and Return in Climate Tech with Kevin Krausert, Avatar Innovations”

My Both of These Things Are True newsletters “California’s Refinery Reckoning” and “The 3 Ts of Energy Realism.”

Watch on YouTube or listen on Substack to hear Kevin and me discuss The Myth and The Moment.

Order The Myth and The Moment: From Polarization to Progress in the New Energy Landscape.

What to do next in The Moment

* Email us to help your team build a 12-month action plan to lead The Moment. We have one project opening in February.

* If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here.

* Did you skip the five-year hangover? Tap the heart button below! It helps others find my work.

Play ball!

Tisha

Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe