Recorded live on the morning of day two at the 2025 North American Gas Forum, this episode of the Energy Perspectives Podcast captures a midpoint reflection on what had already emerged from day one discussions and what leaders were focused on as the forum continued.

Will Bernholz moderates a conversation with Monika Simoes, CEO of Energy Dialogues, and Mara Abbott, Chief of Staff at OpenMinds, to synthesize insights heard across panels, private conversations, and policy remarks during the opening day of NAGF.

Together, they compare notes on where alignment was clearly forming, where constraints were surfacing, and what participants were eager to hear as the dialogue moved into its second day.

The discussion reflects:

• How operators emphasized the infrastructure bottlenecks shaping projects outcomes
• What policymakers said about permitting reform and regulatory certainty
• Where investors flagged data center demand colliding with long lead times

This episode offers a real time checkpoint from inside the forum, grounded in what was heard at NAGF and the questions still shaping conversations.

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Learn more about Energy Dialogues and upcoming forums at: https://www.energy-dialogues.com

Learn more about the North American Gas Forum: https://energy-dialogues.com/events/north-american-gas-forum/

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In this episode of the Energy Perspectives Podcast, recorded on-site at Permian Energy Dialogues in 2025, Beth Garza sits down with James Lackey, Director of Customer Relations 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."