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the view from HETI

HETI members to cover key energy transition topics at CERAWeek 2024

Houston Energy Transition Initiative
Mar 13, 2024, 11:13 am
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The View From HETI
The sessions feature dozens of HETI Steering Committee leaders covering key energy transition topics. Photo via htxenergytransition.org

CERAWeek 2024, the world’s preeminent energy conference, will explore strategies for a multidimensional, multispeed and multifuel energy transition. More than 8,000 thought leaders, policymakers, and executives from across energy, finance, technology, and governments are convening in Houston to openly discuss our industry’s greatest challenges.

Taking place from March 18–22, 2024, the CERAWeek 2024 conference program will explore themes related to: energy markets, policy and geopolitics, company strategies, power markets in transition, new supply chains for net zero, capital transition, and technology and innovation.

The sessions feature dozens of HETI Steering Committee leaders covering key energy transition topics, including:

Session Theme: Energy Markets

Innovating the Energy Mix for Mobility
Monday, March 18, 2024 | 3:45 pm – 4:25 pm (CST)

Speakers: Meg Gentle, Executive Director of the Board, HIF Global; Emma Delaney, EVP, customers & products, bp

For over a century, the modern economy has been made possible by a global fossil fuel system that has delivered low-cost, scalable energy. Now after optimizing transportation fuels, engines and infrastructure, monumental changes are needed to power our future cars, trucks and airplanes while producing significantly less emissions. What’s next?

Energy Security in a Volatile World: The importance of markets
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 9:15 am – 9:50 am (CST)

Speaker: John Hess, Chief Executive Officer, Hess Corporation

Across the world, markets continue to seek visibility into what the post-pandemic normal will look like. How will supply and demand balance in a world of uncertainty?

Co-Location: The new duo of power generation and storage
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 | 12:00 pm – 12:50 pm (CST)

Speaker: Meghan Nutting, Sunnova Energy International, Inc.

Business models for grid-connected energy storage are being solidified around the world, leading to accelerated growth. In addition, “co-location” projects—pairing battery storage with renewable generation—are an increasingly attractive option for developers because of the flexibility and added value they place on generation assets.

Natural Gas for a Growing Global Economy
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 | 2:30 pm – 3:10 pm (CST)

Speakers: Peter Clarke, Senior Vice President, Global LNG, ExxonMobil International Limited; Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Baker Hughes; Clay Neff, President, International Exploration and Production, Chevron

Natural gas continues to play a major role in the global economy. How will the industry reconcile security of supply, environmental considerations, and the need to be affordable?

Session Theme: Climate & Sustainability

Accelerating Carbon Management
Monday, March 18, 2024 | 11:50 am – 12:30 pm (CST)

Speakers: Richard Jackson, President, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management Operations, Oxy; Zoe Yujnovich, Integrated Gas and Upstream Director, Shell

According to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPCC), large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is required to limit warming to 1.5 °C. What is the technology outlook for difficult-to-decarbonize sectors like heavy industry, and emissions-mitigation scenarios?

Measuring Tomorrow’s Risks: Quantifying physical risks in a warmer world
Monday, March 18, 2024 | 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm (CST)

Speaker: Lynda Clemmons, Chief Sustainability Officer, NRG Energy

As climate change intensifies, understanding and measuring the physical risks associated with changing climate are paramount. With 2023 being the hottest year on record, and the U.S. experiencing extreme weather events costing over $150 billion annually, managing and adapting to physical climate risks is becoming increasingly critical.

CCUS Infrastructure: The key to commercializing decarbonization
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 8:30 am – 9:00 am (CST)

Speakers: Carl Fortin, Global Marketing for Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage, ExxonMobil; Fred Majkut, Senior Vice President, Carbon Solutions, SLB

As CCUS projects become more developed globally, there will be more frequent requirements for long-distance and cross-border business dealings to connect players across the chain from carbon capture, transportation and storage. What sort of policies, financing, stakeholder engagement and economic solutions are required to realize the potential of CCUS in these situations?

Reducing Emissions in Supply Chains
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 10:30 am – 11:00 am (CST)

Speaker: Heloisa Schmidt, Corporate Sustainability Manager, Bechtel

Reducing emissions through the supply chain is an important priority for all energy producers and suppliers. Which state-of-the-art practices can best reduce embedded carbon or operational emissions from supply chain operations?

Managing Carbon Projects: Lessons and solutions
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 3:10 pm – 3:50 pm (CST)

Speakers: Jeff Gustavson, President, Chevron New Energies; Dan Holton, Senior Vice President, Low Carbon Solutions, STRATEGY, PRODUCTS & NEW ASSETS, ExxonMobil

The development of large carbon management projects and hubs, involving large industrial partners, is a key requirement for reaching net zero. Discover the policies and programs contributing to marked growth in carbon management projects.

Balancing Act: Incentivizing decarbonization and renewables
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 | 9:30 am – 10:00 am (CST)

Speaker: Tomeka McLeod, Vice President Hydrogen & CCS, US, bp United States

There are several pathways to lower emissions. The world will probably need an all-of-the-above strategy instead of an either-or strategy to get to net zero. Are today’s policy tools creating adequate incentives for investment in both decarbonization pathways such as CCS, H2, DAC and renewable energy?

Future-Proofing Energy Assets: Repurposing for low-carbon
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 | 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm (CST)

Speaker: Edward Stones, Business Vice President, Dow, Inc.

Repurposing of energy assets to enable low-carbon energy projects is an increasingly common strategy across the energy sector—in upstream, downstream, and in the power sector. Which drivers enable industry players to take advantage of their existing assets in this way? What regulatory support is most helpful? Which regions offer the most potential?

Session Theme: Company Strategies

Strategic Choices in a Net Zero World
Monday, March 18, 2024 | 11:00 am – 11:40 am (CST)

Speaker: Meg O’Neill, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Woodside Energy

While the world needs a growing supply of affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy in line with net-zero goals, companies need to choose their own path through the energy transition. Divergent strategies are emerging as companies seek growth opportunities while responding to pressures from investors and governments.

The Global Energy Company
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 10:45 am – 11:15 am (CST)

Speaker: Olivier Le Peuch, Chief Executive Officer, SLB

The push to decarbonize the global economy is opening new vistas of opportunity and risk for major international energy companies. Global companies are continuing to invest in their core businesses as they look for new growth opportunities in the energy transition.

The Multidimensional Energy Transition: A world of choices
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 12:55 pm – 2:10 pm (CST)

Speaker: Vicki Hollub, President & Chief Executive Officer, Oxy

Pushing for a single, global energy transition path is unrealistic and could derail efforts to reach net-zero emissions. Energy security and affordability come to the fore when lives and livelihoods are at stake. What are the paths for energy transition that also support economic growth and global prosperity in different regions and different sectors?

Carbon Credits: Opportunities and challenges as a policy tool
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm (CST)

Speaker: Barbara Harrison, Vice President, Offsets & Emerging, Chevron New Energies, Chevron

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This article originally ran on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog. HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

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Houston expert: From EVs to F-35s — materials that power our future are in short supply

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Guest Column
No critical minerals, no modern economy. Getty images

If you’re reading this on a phone, driving an EV, flying in a plane, or relying on the power grid to keep your lights on, you’re benefiting from critical minerals. These are the building blocks of modern life. Things like copper, lithium, nickel, rare earth elements, and titanium, they’re found in everything from smartphones to solar panels to F-35 fighter jets.

In short: no critical minerals, no modern economy.

These minerals aren’t just useful, they’re essential. And in the U.S., we don’t produce enough of them. Worse, we’re heavily dependent on countries that don’t always have our best interests at heart. That’s a serious vulnerability, and we’ve done far too little to fix it.

Where We Use Them and Why We’re Behind

Let’s start with where these minerals show up in daily American life:

  • Electric vehicles need lithium, cobalt, and nickel for batteries.
  • Wind turbines and solar panels rely on rare earths and specialty metals.
  • Defense systems require titanium, beryllium, and rare earths.
  • Basic infrastructure like power lines and buildings depend on copper and aluminum.

You’d think that something so central to the economy, and to national security, would be treated as a top priority. But we’ve let production and processing capabilities fall behind at home, and now we’re playing catch-up.

The Reality Check: We’re Not in Control

Right now, the U.S. is deeply reliant on foreign sources for critical minerals, especially China. And it’s not just about mining. China dominates processing and refining too, which means they control critical links in the supply chain.

Gabriel Collins and Michelle Michot Foss from the Baker Institute lay all this out in a recent report that every policymaker should read. Their argument is blunt: if we don’t get a handle on this, we’re in trouble, both economically and militarily.

China has already imposed export controls on key rare earth elements like dysprosium and terbium which are critical for magnets, batteries, and defense technologies, in direct response to new U.S. tariffs. This kind of tit-for-tat escalation exposes just how much leverage we’ve handed over. If this continues, American manufacturers could face serious material shortages, higher costs, and stalled projects.

We’ve seen this movie before, in the pandemic, when supply chains broke and countries scrambled for basics like PPE and semiconductors. We should’ve learned our lesson.

We Do Have a Stockpile, But We Need a Strategy

Unlike during the Cold War, the U.S. no longer maintains comprehensive strategic reserves across the board, but we do have stockpiles managed by the Defense Logistics Agency. The real issue isn’t absence, it’s strategy: what to stockpile, how much, and under what assumptions.

Collins and Michot Foss argue for a more robust and better-targeted approach. That could mean aiming for 12 to 18 months worth of demand for both civilian and defense applications. Achieving that will require:

  • Smarter government purchasing and long-term contracts
  • Strategic deals with allies (e.g., swapping titanium for artillery shells with Ukraine)
  • Financing mechanisms to help companies hold critical inventory for emergency use

It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than scrambling mid-crisis when supplies are suddenly cut off.

The Case for Advanced Materials: Substitutes That Work Today

One powerful but often overlooked solution is advanced materials, which can reduce our dependence on vulnerable mineral supply chains altogether.

Take carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers, a cutting-edge material invented at Rice University. CNTs are lighter, stronger, and more conductive than copper. And unlike some future tech, this isn’t hypothetical: we could substitute CNTs for copper wire harnesses in electrical systems today.

As Michot Foss explained on the Energy Forum podcast:

“You can substitute copper and steel and aluminum with carbon nanotube fibers and help offset some of those trade-offs and get performance enhancements as well… If you take carbon nanotube fibers and you put those into a wire harness… you're going to be reducing the weight of that wire harness versus a metal wire harness like we already use. And you're going to be getting the same benefit in terms of electrical conductivity, but more strength to allow the vehicle, the application, the aircraft, to perform better.”

By accelerating R&D and deployment of CNTs and similar substitutes, we can reduce pressure on strained mineral supply chains, lower emissions, and open the door to more secure and sustainable manufacturing.

We Have Tools. We Need to Use Them.

The report offers a long list of solutions. Some are familiar, like tax incentives, public-private partnerships, and fast-tracked permits. Others draw on historical precedent, like “preclusive purchasing,” a WWII tactic where the U.S. bought up materials just so enemies couldn’t.

We also need to get creative:

  • Repurpose existing industrial sites into mineral hubs
  • Speed up R&D for substitutes and recycling
  • Buy out risky foreign-owned assets in friendlier countries

Permitting remains one of the biggest hurdles. In the U.S., it can take 7 to 10 years to approve a new critical minerals project, a timeline that doesn’t match the urgency of our strategic needs. As Collins said on the Energy Forum podcast:

“Time kills deals... That’s why it’s more attractive generally to do these projects elsewhere.”

That’s the reality we’re up against. Long approval windows discourage investment and drive developers to friendlier jurisdictions abroad. One encouraging step is the use of the Defense Production Act to fast-track permitting under national security grounds. That kind of shift, treating permitting as a strategic imperative, must become the norm, not the exception.

It’s Time to Redefine Sustainability

Sustainability has traditionally focused on cutting carbon emissions. That’s still crucial, but we need a broader definition. Today, energy and materials security are just as important.

Countries are now weighing cost and reliability alongside emissions goals. We're also seeing renewed attention to recycling, biodiversity, and supply chain resilience.

Net-zero by 2050 is still a target. But reality is forcing a more nuanced discussion:

  • What level of warming is politically and economically sustainable?
  • What tradeoffs are we willing to make to ensure energy access and affordability?

The bottom line: we can’t build a clean energy future without secure access to materials. Recycling helps, but it’s not enough. We'll need new mines, new tech, and a more flexible definition of sustainability.

My Take: We’re Running Out of Time

This isn’t just a policy debate. It’s a test of whether we’ve learned anything from the past few years of disruption. We’re not facing an open war, but the risks are real and growing.

We need to treat critical minerals like what they are: a strategic necessity. That means rebuilding stockpiles, reshoring processing, tightening alliances, and accelerating permitting across the board.

It won’t be easy. But if we wait until a real crisis hits, it’ll be too late.

———

Scott Nyquist is a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company and vice chairman, Houston Energy Transition Initiative of the Greater Houston Partnership. The views expressed herein are Nyquist's own and not those of McKinsey & Company or of the Greater Houston Partnership. This article originally appeared on LinkedIn on April 11, 2025.


energy transitionfossil fuelselectric vehiclesmineralsscott nyquist

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