We are very excited to share this Special Edition COBT on the 5th Anniversary of We are very excited to share this Special Edition COBT on the 5th Anniversary of COBT. Our very first show was March 10, 2020 (exactly 5 years ago today!), and we are beyond thrilled that Secretary Chris Wright joined us to commemorate the event. This week will be his debut party at CERAWeek, so the timing could not have been better for a discussion.
 
Secretary Wright was nominated by President Trump to serve as the 17th Secretary of Energy on November 16, 2024, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 3rd, 2025. If you have not yet watched his confirmation hearing, it’s a must-see for energy policy insights and is linked here.

CERAWeek officially starts today in Houston (agenda linked here) and Secretary Wright was the kickoff speaker Monday morning. In our COBT discussion with Secretary Wright, we explore the expanding role of natural gas in the global energy mix, the rising costs of electricity, and the importance of grid stability supported by natural gas, nuclear, and coal. We discuss regulatory barriers affecting the construction of pipelines, transmission lines, and large-scale energy projects in the U.S. and how AI is shaping the future of energy from advancing fusion energy and grid optimization to breakthroughs in drug discovery and national security applications. Secretary Wright shares his observations that policymakers are becoming more pragmatic about energy affordability and reliability, the need for tailored energy solutions in the U.S. with many states relying on different energy sources, Puerto Rico’s ongoing energy crisis and the determination of the current Governor to fix it, pipeline infrastructure challenges in the Northeast, and the important work that U.S. National Labs are doing to advance scientific achievements. We ask Secretary Wright for his thoughts on Europe’s energy policies and the unfortunate industrial decline that’s happening there, Africa’s urgent need for reliable energy, and the complex realities of climate change. Secretary Wright emphasizes the importance of intellectual honesty in energy and climate discussions and shares insights on navigating government bureaucracy, building a high-performing team at DOE, and shaping energy policies that balance security, cost, and sustainability. As anyone who has listened to him knows, the message is “energy addition” and not “energy subtraction.” The other thing that resonates is his clear determination to do what he can to help the nation. A huge thank you to Secretary Wright for joining us today.

To start the show, Mike Bradley provided an update on the year-to-date performance for a number of key flavors: the 10-year bond, broader equity markets, energy and power equities, and energy commodities, with an emphasis on the surge in U.S. natural gas prices.

A few items were mentioned during the discussion: Secretary Wright’s first Secretarial Order is linked here, Jim Ratcliffe’s letter on the challenges facing Europe’s chemical industry is linked here, and the Bettering Human Lives report is linked here. Today marks Secretary Wright’s third appearance on COBT. We previously had the pleasure of hosting him on October 11, 2022 (episode linked here) and September 27, 2023 (episode linked here).

As we look back on the past 5 years of COBT, we have had 269 regular Tuesday episodes, 32 Special Edition episodes, and over 320 guests from across the energy sector. For a fun look back from the archives, the first ever episode of COBT from Marc