Energy Thinks with Tisha Schuller

The best holiday gift for your team? The Myth and The Moment!What you’ll get in this solo episode of Energy ThinksIn this episode, I take you with me into the Red Sea to make sense of today’s increasingly strange climate and energy narratives.After traveling to Egypt and swimming (voluntarily! for a long time!) in the Red Sea, I came home thinking differently about courage, villains, and what it means to keep moving forward when others around us … haven’t.In this solo episode, you’ll hear me think through* How climate narratives keep getting weirder—and less useful—for climate action* Why some adherents of The Moment are stuck, retreading components of The Myth with increasingly outlandish rationales* How all of that creates enormous opportunity for you—to lead what comes nextBecause leaders see open water and dive in.Listen in to hear about all the weird thoughts and creatures I swam with.A preview …Why The Myth explains today’s energy contradictions: “Climate-centric stakeholders think of you, the oil and gas employee, as a tobacco lobbyist. … It helps explain why, even when they need natural gas, they still don’t want to talk to you.”How climate-centric media coverage keeps falling into a self-defeating framing: “Coverage overwhelmingly sets affordability, reliability, and national security in conflict with climate goals. It sets up climate in a zero-sum game with things it will almost always lose to.”Why the industry has to own—and outgrow—its role in The Myth: “We need to understand our role as a villain, get really smart about not playing into it, and start articulating a mindset that replaces old thinking with something actually innovative.”When courage arrives disguised as dolphins: “They turned around, they heard us calling, and they swam alongside us. … It is, other than having my two children, the most magical thing that ever happened to me.”Bonus content for this episodeThe Myth and The Moment is your guide to leading into the energy future. If you don’t have it, get it.Check out my series on working with the Problem Solvers: Part 1, “The World According to the Problem Solvers,” Part 2, “Ding Dong The Myth Is Dead,” and Part 3, “Three Steps to Calling It Right.”Mentioned in the episode:* “The Future of Energy Has Arrived—Just Not in the U.S.” The Daily, New York Times.* “With the U.S. Absent, China Takes Over at COP30” POLITICO Energy.Watch the episode on YouTube or listen to the podcast on Substack.What to do next in The Moment* Starting your 2026 planning? Email us to set up a briefing on The Myth and The Moment for your team.* Please take a moment to give Energy Thinks a five-star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts.* Was this email forwarded to you? Please subscribe here.* Glad I made it back with all my limbs? Hit that heart button below.To dolphins,Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Thanksgiving! To celebrate the holiday, I’m rerunning the year’s most popular episodes.What you’ll get in this episode of Energy ThinksI’m joined by longtime friend and colleague Roger Pielke Jr., senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute—and one of the most fearless, objective, and valuable analysts of the climate-and-energy space.Roger’s work lands at the messy intersection of science, policy, and public discourse—the crucial place where oil and gas leaders find themselves navigating The Moment.Why Roger?Roger brings a unique blend of academic rigor and clear-eyed political insight to the fraught conversations around energy and climate. Together on this episode, we dive into how political division is dismantling traditional climate narratives—and why that’s good news. Roger shares eye-opening findings from a national poll that reveal a critical insight: Most Americans aren’t buying into climate-apocalypse scenarios. Instead, they’re seeking energy solutions that are reliable, affordable, and realistic.The climate debate we’ve known for decades—polarized, partisan, predictable—is changing. As Roger explains, the simplistic framing of climate apocalypse versus climate denial no longer holds water, and that creates opportunity for pragmatic energy solutions. Roger’s insights are crucial for leaders like you who are juggling conflicting pressures from your stakeholders.Bonus content!* Subscribe to The Honest Broker on Substack for Roger’s thoughtful insights on science, policy, and public dialogue.* Read Roger’s survey analysis, co-authored with Ruy Teixeira: “The Clean Energy Transition’s Voter Problem.”* Watch the episode on YouTube or listen on Substack for our exploration of The Myth and The Moment.What to do next in The Moment* Got this email from a colleague? Subscribe here.* Ready to face The Moment head on? Hit that heart button below.Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving!Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

Check out my new book, The Myth and The Moment. Give it a read (or listen on Audible) and let me know what you think!What you’ll get in this solo episode of Energy ThinksI explore a simple, hard question: What comes after The Moment? Answering this question is mission critical if we want to ensure that The Myth of an Easy Energy Transition doesn’t hang on with zombie strength. In the midst of my Problem Solvers’ series (Part 1 and Part 2), I wrestle with how we seize this generational opportunity to write what comes next for the energy system.In this solo episode, you’ll think through the following with me:* Who fills the vacuum (and why it’s you)* A simple framework that attracts the Problem Solvers and lets them build things (listen for the model)* A case for natural gas—but betterI’m working on both the vision that you, the oil and gas leader, can offer to the Problem Solvers and the framework that can inspire politically feasible platforms. Listen in—and help me make it better.Bonus content for this episodeThe Myth and The Moment sets up the paradigm for today’s episode. Why is The Myth unraveling, and what opportunity does The Moment hold?Both of These Things are True editions “The World According to the Problem Solvers” and “Ding Dong The Myth Is Dead”.“The Post-Myth Playbook with Kevin Krausert”Watch the episode on YouTube or listen to the podcast on Substack to hear me discuss The Myth and The Moment.What to do next in The Moment* Thinking about those year-end gifts? Email us for a bulk order of The Myth and The Moment for your team.* Please give Energy Thinks a five-star rating on your podcast platform.* Was this email forwarded to you? Please subscribe here.* Hit that heart button below! It’s the most important thing you can do to support my work.To the most important job ahead,Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

What you’ll get in this episode of Energy ThinksHow 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 futureWhy 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

Check out my new book, The Myth and The Moment. Give it a read and let me know what you think!What you’ll get in this solo episode of Energy ThinksI published “Good Riddance to Climate Week” recently, and I got a lot of feedback, from readers loving and hating it. Overwhelmingly, those who attended Climate Week said I got it wrong—for them, Climate Week was still an inspiring, engaging experience. And those who didn’t attend loved the piece, because it called out the “cringy spectacle” that turns off the very outsiders Climate Week seeks to motivate and mobilize.That split-screen response inspired me to think about whom I’m targeting in my ongoing work of helping people to acknowledge the end of The Myth of an Easy Energy Transition and to take charge of what comes next.I start with this question: In our world of stakeholders, who most needs our help right now? That answer is clear: the Problem Solvers. These are the countless regulators, planners, utility commissioners, city staffers, engineers, and dealmakers who have to deliver power, pipes, and projects in the real world.And so, in this solo episode, I think out loud about these things:* Who are the Problem Solvers, and what are they tasked with?* What do they need from us, the oil and gas leaders?My answer: They need three things from us, starting with help understanding The Myth so that they can name it—and leave it behind. And the key to this work, as always, is to respect the Three Ts. Listen in to hear the rest.Bonus content for this episodeThe Myth and The Moment describes who the Problem Solvers are and why they are tasked with our energy future. (Spoiler alert: because no one else is!)Watch the episode on YouTube or listen to the podcast on Substack to hear me discuss The Myth and The Moment.What to do next in The Moment* Starting your 2026 planning? Email us to order The Myth and The Moment for your team.* Please take a moment to give Energy Thinks a 5-star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps others in the industry discover these conversations.* Was this email forwarded to you? Please subscribe here.* Support my work: Hit that heart button below.To being both wrong and right,Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

My new book, The Myth and The Moment, is here! Order your copy today.What you’ll get in this (solo) episode of Energy ThinksIn this solo pod, I reflect on the Abundance conference I attended in D.C. last month. Is there an abundance agenda that oil and gas employees, communities, leaders, and supporters could get behind? In other words, is there an abundance for the rest of us, in which cost of living eclipses everything else?At the conference, speakers added “clean” before every mention of “energy” as if it were a tic, conveying a reflexive, tribal desire to say “We want to build, but only the stuff that our tribe approves of.” Sure, cleaner energy is undoubtedly our shared goal—but it has to be affordable and reliable as well.Listen to hear me unpack the qualities our industry—and the rest of the world—could get behind in an abundance movement:* Nonpartisan: Target outcomes, not tribes.* High-energy: Energy makes other abundance priorities possible and affordable.* Pro-building: Not just ADUs—support pipelines, too.* Clear trade-offs: It’s more than permits; it’s understanding and making way for trade-offs.Above all—and most radically—abundance needs to shed any good-guys-versus-bad-guys framing. Transforming policy conversations will require a real shuffling of coalitions—not just convenient “labor” additions, but real labor additions, like the employees of oil and gas companies and the citizens of their supporting communities.My recommendation: Let’s take the first step and define what we would like to see out of the abundance movement. It will have to grow beyond its center-left roots—and I’m guardedly optimistic that it will.Mentioned in this episodeVarieties of Abundance by Steven Teles, Niskanen CenterWatch the episode on YouTube or listen to the podcast on Substack.What to do next in The Moment* Email us to set up a briefing on how your company can understand The Myth and The Moment—and activate on it.* Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.* Love energy? Love your enemies? Tap that heart for either or both.Energy without enemies cannot exist unless we make the first moves. Here’s what that looks like in practice: disciplined transparency, posture that calms the room, and a bias toward projects that measurably improve affordability, reliability, and cleaner outcomes. It’s how we foster trust—and permission to build—at the same time.Build more—and argue less,Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

What you’ll get in this episode of Energy ThinksToby Z. Rice, CEO at EQT, is unabashedly America’s natural gas champion—and I always enjoy his high-energy, high-optimism takes! On this episode of Energy Thinks, Toby was clear: Energy security, reliability, and affordability are nonnegotiable. He paired this resolution with unwavering commitment to the trajectory to zero carbon. Toby framed his company’s imperative this way:We are still in one of the greatest races ever when it comes to energy. I don’t care if you’re in renewables, batteries, nuclear, natural gas, oil, coal—we are all in a race to be the first energy solution that can present the trifecta to the world: affordable, reliable, and zero-carbon.Given his outspoken optimism, I pressed Toby on leadership in The Moment—globally, nationally, and locally. You’ll hear:* How energy abundance can fuel economic development, with Pittsburgh as a proving ground* Why “best of the above” beats “all of the above” (“RIP ‘All of the Above’”!)* How American LNG underpins global energy security and (I ask) climate security, too* Toby’s bold vision for using energy abundance as a “wrecking ball” against poverty to unleash human potential around the globeWhy Toby?Toby leads EQT, one of America’s largest natural gas producers. His abundance lens is pragmatic: affordability, reliability, cleaner outcomes. That combination makes him a compelling voice for The Moment.Some of Toby’s insights* On reframing energy: “Energy is life; energy is wealth; energy is technology and prosperity. Energy is freedom. And that’s a very good message for us to get excited about. And the one way that every single person in this industry can move that ball forward is by making the energy we produce more affordable, more reliable, and cleaner. And then tell people: ‘You do it.’”* On the role of American LNG: “What’s been proven over the past few years is that LNG, specifically American LNG, is the global guarantor of the world’s energy security. We cannot say that enough times. It was America that really stepped up to deliver energy to Europe when their supply was yanked away [by] Russia. And one truth that we’ve learned from going through that crisis is that without energy security, the world cannot transition. So American LNG is going to play a huge role in providing that energy security.”* On turning The Moment into action: “What are the next steps [so] that we can take this passion and convert it into real action? That’s going to be different for every company. But one thing that’s going to underpin every one of those action plans is bringing more energy into the world. Because the more energy we bring into it, the better the world will be.”Bonus content!My op-ed in The Hill: The “easy energy transition” myth is causing your bills to go up.My Both of These Things Are True: “The 3 Ts of Energy Realism.”Watch on YouTube or listen on Substack.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 translate your team’s optimism about The Moment into a 12-month action plan.* If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here.* Wreck that wall! Tap the heart button below. (It really helps!)Smash! Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

What you’ll get in this mini pod Energy ThinksScott Hallam, president & CEO of Boardwalk Pipelines, joins me to offer his takes on my new book, The Myth and The Moment, and to map how leaders can drive what comes next. You’ll hear:* Why “the Myth” won’t disappear—but will evolve* How leaders can engage with true believers in the Myth* How to build and test a durable strategy for your business that stands up under changing political regimesWhy Scott?Scott has front-line experience making the case for the triple mandate for energy leadership: decarbonization + reliability + affordability—all anchored in technology and innovation. He challenges us to think big (not “small ball”) to drive what comes after The Myth: America’s energy advantage and best-in-class infrastructure.Some of Scott’s insightsOn the Myth’s staying power (and how to meet it): “I think that The Myth will continue to evolve, and I just think there’s too much investment emotionally and intellectually for The Myth to ever really go away… as those of us that are in the moment, we have to find ways to come alongside those that really believe in the promises of clean energy.”On building a strategy that survives political whiplash: “We have to consistently test our strategies and our thinking… finding the right alliances… with those that may not be like-minded, but there’s common ground.”On how we create what happens next in The Moment: “We want to think big. We want to make sure that everything we’re looking at and considering is because we’re thinking large scale, big, big opportunities.”What to do next in The Moment* Watch on YouTube or listen here.* Order The Myth and The Moment for your team’s year end meeting! Contact us for a bulk order.* If you’re a paid subscriber, thanks! If not, you can support my work by upgrading to paid.* Hit that heart button in a BIG way to help others find my work!Home run!Tisha Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe

Arjun Murti, a partner at Veriten with over 30 years in the energy sector, shares his compelling insights on the energy transition. He discusses the dangers of the 'delayed transition' narrative and the essential role of emerging economies in shaping future energy demands. Murti emphasizes the need for oil and gas companies to take calculated risks and adapt their visions. He advocates for a humble, data-driven approach to leadership and the importance of navigating energy discussions with accuracy and pragmatism amidst a complex landscape.

In this bonus solo episode, Tisha Schuller unpacks and connects three threads:* The kind of endurance it takes to keep moving when every instinct says stop,* A culture-war symbol that may become a bridge, and* The surprising leadership muscle that unlocks momentum after you’ve run out of strategies.Mentioned in the episode:The Myth and The Moment is now available.“Ruben Gallego's 'Big Ass Truck' Pitch to Fellow Democrats”, Newsweek by Jesus Mesa“Ford leaders sharpen their focus on how to beat the Chinese to lead in global markets”, Detroit Free Press by Jamie L. LaReau“Beatitude”, VocabularyWatch the episode on YouTube or listen to the podcast on Substack to hear me discuss The Myth and The Moment.Subscribe here for Tisha’s weekly Both of These Things Are True email newsletter.Follow all things Adamantine Energy at www.energythinks.com.Thanks to Kayla Chieves who makes the Energy Thinks podcast possible.[Episode recorded on August 24, 2025] Get full access to Both of These Things Are True at tishaschuller.substack.com/subscribe