Columbia Energy Exchange

It started last year as a pressure campaign at sea, with the United States seizing  tankers as part of what President Trump called a "total and complete blockade" of vessels carrying Venezuelan crude subject to US sanctions. It crescendoed on January 3, when US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, bringing him and his wife to New York on narcoterrorism charges.
Since Maduro's removal, confusion remains over whether—and to what extent—the US is controlling the country's oil sector. But one thing is clear: despite holding the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela is producing at a fraction of its former levels, and its path to recovery is anything but certain.
A national tragedy has only added to the instability. In June, twin earthquakes claimed more than 5,000 lives. While the country's energy infrastructure did not sustain significant damage, the quakes exposed deep fault lines in the country's political leadership and served as a stark reminder of an already long-standing humanitarian crisis in the region.  
So what's the state of the energy sector and energy investments in Venezuela? How has the global energy crisis changed the calculus for prospective energy developers? What role is the Trump administration playing in the sale of Venezuelan oil? And where is oil production headed? 
Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks with Luisa Palacios about the state of the Venezuelan energy sector, efforts around creating new policies to boost oil production, and the impact of the June earthquakes.
Luisa is an adjunct senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University, where she previously served as head of research. Before joining CGEP, Luisa was chairwoman of Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the US refining arm of Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.

Over the past five months, the Strait of Hormuz has been closed for extended stretches of time, disrupting roughly 10 to 15 million barrels of oil supply each day. It is the biggest energy supply shock in history, but global energy markets are defying historical expectations.
Despite lost production and heightened geopolitical instability, crude oil prices are far below the catastrophic levels many analysts predicted early on. But beneath the headline numbers, the broader energy system tells a far more complicated story. Refining margins have spiked to unprecedented levels, global coal consumption is pacing toward a new record high, and the ways energy moves around the world are changing in real time as the crisis continues to unfold. 
So, why hasn't this massive disruption triggered a full-blown global economic crisis? What role are China's massive strategic stockpiles, shifting demand patterns, and the ongoing energy transition playing in dampening the shock? And what are the long-term security implications for global oil refining, shipping chokepoints, and future LNG infrastructure?
Today on the show, Jason Bordoff talks to Bloomberg opinion columnist Javier Blas about how the strait closure and Iran war have impacted global energy markets so far.
Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2015, Javier held a number of roles at the Financial Times, including Africa editor and commodities editor. He is also the co-author of The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.

As the demand for power surges across the US, the debate over how to build energy infrastructure has reached a fever pitch. And while both sides of the aisle broadly agree that the current permitting process is broken, turning that consensus into actual ​legislation remains a challenge. So how do we define permitting reform, what does meaningful progress actually look like, and where do we stand today? 
Alan Armstrong is keenly focused on those questions. After spending his entire career in the energy industry, he was sworn into the US Senate in March, representing Oklahoma. (Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt appointed him after Markwayne Mullin resigned to become US secretary of Homeland Security. Per Oklahoma law, Armstrong cannot run for reelection.) Senator Armstrong spent 15 years as CEO of Williams Companies, one of the largest natural gas infrastructure firms in North America. He is also the former chair of the National Petroleum Council and a founding member of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future.
Last week, Jason Bordoff spoke with Senator Armstrong about his legislative focus: permitting reforms aimed at streamlining energy buildouts. They discussed a bill that the senator has sponsored, the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act of 2026, as well as the broader wave of reform efforts drawing bipartisan attention. The senator reflected on his time at Williams and how that informed his view on permitting policy. They discussed the role of judicial review, the power dynamic between federal and state regulators, and how growing energy affordability concerns are adding new pressure to pass meaningful permitting reform.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.

Critical minerals sit at the intersection of energy technology, industrial competitiveness, and economic resilience. The issue has hit a fever pitch in the United States, driving the Trump administration to establish a $12 billion Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve and take other steps to support domestic mining projects. More broadly, G7 countries recently agreed to step up coordination to cut their countries' reliance on China for critical minerals.
All of these moves are targeted at breaking China's stronghold on the sector, which it built over decades as the US largely turned away from securing a critical mineral supply chain. And it's not just about supply dominance, China is also using its strengths in the sector as a geopolitical weapon.
Yet, questions remain over whether US investments to date, or international agreements, are stoking the level of private investment needed to compete with China. So what financial models could provide effective blueprints for quickly scaling mineral supply? Which countries are pursuing the most promising approaches? And looking beyond investments, what policy tools could help the US and its allies grow a resilient critical minerals supply chain? 
Today on the show, Bill Loveless speaks to Tom Moerenhout and Tomasz Nadrowski about what it takes to build mineral supply chains as strategic infrastructure and how targeted financial instruments could lower risks for investors.
Tom Moerenhout leads the Critical Materials Initiative at the Center on Global Energy Policy and is a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Recently, he and other scholars at the center contributed to a new World Economic Forum report called "Making Critical Minerals Bankable: Policy Tools to Unlock Investment."
Tomasz Nadrowski is the co-founder and portfolio manager at Amvest Terraden, where he invests in exploration, development and mining companies that are focused on strategic minerals. He has 25 years of mining sector investment experience. He is also the author of the recently published book Mineral War: China's Quest for Weapons of Mineral Destruction.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.

Nearly a month after a ceasefire, the US-Iran deal seems to have all but collapsed as both nations have slipped back into active conflict. On Sunday, Tehran announced that the Strait of Hormuz is once again closed—a move President Trump immediately countered, stating the waterway will remain open "with or without Iran." Since then, both the US and Iran have reportedly begun new attacks, and the President said the US will reinstate its blockade to become the "guardian" of the strait, even floating a controversial plan to charge commercial ships to ensure their safe passage. 
We are in a critical window where both sides are aggressively trying to redefine their leverage in the Persian Gulf region, yet neither has fully abandoned the negotiating table. The U.S. can't maintain its high-stakes engagement indefinitely. 
So are we right back to square one? Is this perpetual state of uncertainty the new normal for the Strait of Hormuz? What realistic leverage does Washington still possess on the nuclear front? And with senior Houthi leaders announcing their involvement, how does the collapse of this deal reverberate throughout the Persian Gulf region? 
Today on the show, Jason Bordoff discusses the current and unpredictable state of affairs in the strait, and how it could play out in the coming weeks and months, with Suzanne Maloney, the vice president and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.
Suzanne's research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. She has advised Democratic and Republican administrations on Iran policy, including as an external advisor to senior State Department officials during the Obama administration and as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Policy Planning staff during the administration of George W. Bush. Earlier in her career, she served as Middle East advisor for ExxonMobil Corporation.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.