First off, I have to give props to Larry Fink of BlackRock for style points. Any letter not addressed to a family member that starts "Dear...." is bound to be a fun read and in this case, "Dear CEO" is a strong opener. Unlike the letters that I start with "Dear PDC", when the writer has $6.3 trillion in assets under management (AUM), the reader is going to listen and so this week, Mr. Fink had a...

There are two types of climate-change-ologists who get into discussions about electricity: those that recognize that economics, jobs, taxes, subsidies and re-elect-ability all play a factor in decision making and look for incremental solutions to problems; and those who believe that mankind has gone too far and needs to rejoin our original state with nature, forgetting that the changes in our life span and quality of life are directly related to our access to energy (also known as de-growthers)....

This week, we had a data driven discussion about modern society and highlighted a choice: to continue consumption while making cheap goods offshoring higher emissions (the status quo) or we can bring production back to the US where we control the regulations. In a way, the narrative of the trade war could have been more successful if the President said the bringing production back to US was about modernizing our power grid and reducing the carbon footprint of our consumerism. So-TVs. American made. Lower carbon footprint. 20%...

We pivot from the choices of consumption- that politicians and activists alike don’t like to talk about- to production where in some small part; I feel very qualified to discuss. I like fact driven debate with stats and data and testimonials- as much or more than anyone else who chooses not to watch broadcast news. And as tonight unfolded as the time to write my Hottake approached - I thought about all the ways I could make this point.  But I realized I have 20 years of experience....

If we see the ‘energy problem’ through the eyes of the consumer of said energy, there is a lot to contemplate. China’s raw energy consumption is 75% higher than the US. 66% of their electricity is generated from coal. Of the 800,000 deaths a year globally from the problems with coal electricity generation, 670,000 of those are in China. There are 1.4b people and at present, each uses 1/3 the amount of energy as the American consumer. Have you ever heard of a ‘no peeing section in...

Today’s post is simple. Why are we pointing fingers and yelling when what we should be doing is having fact driven debates? Our kids now have air conditioning in their classrooms even though we didn’t; I had a AA battery powered Gameboy while my kids play all sorts of games with headsets to talk to kids all over the world over the internet on a 70” screen; I stream Netflix (a lot); I order from Amazon; I store data on the cloud; And I need...

Ya-hoooo! The annual family drive from Denver to Calgary afforded me lots of time for thinking and for listening to my favorite podcasts and movies. While 17 hours is a long time in a car, it’s one of my favorite family traditions. Some things I thought about: I think “The Big Short” is the best, most educational movie I know. If you haven’t watched it- you must. Whenever I feel too optimistic, I...

I am going to be totally without controversy today and say “Happy Mothers Day” to all the moms out there. You are all amazing. Ok.... most of you are. Some of you raised little a-holes but we can talk more about that on Father’s Day. I kid. Let’s talk climate change for a second. Carbon free is a cool concept but I ask, what changes are we willing to make to make it happen? Everyone has a plan but no one is talking about...

As we start our Saturday, there are 600 million heavy trucks and buses on roads throughout the world as well as 597 million passenger cars and trucks. And all these have combustion engines. There are 3 million electric vehicles. How much lithium and electric power generation would we need to change that? (And for kicks, Google how you get and where to find Lithium) 38% of the world’s electricity is generated from coal, not to mention its use in iron and steel. 7% of...