Columbia Energy Exchange

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.

In the 23 days since the US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire, strikes have returned, following a familiar pattern: Iran attacks vessels using an internationally backed sea lane in Omani territorial waters, the US retaliates against Iranian military infrastructure, and Iran strikes back at US bases across the region. This week, alongside funeral processions for the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, both physical and verbal attacks escalated.
Yet, both the US and Iran are still signaling they prefer diplomacy over a return to full-scale war. Despite this week's events, Brent crude oil prices are only $5 above levels that preceded the war. Some 200 million barrels of oil stranded on vessels and in storage have managed to exit the straits since late May.
But this crisis is far from over. Inventories of crude oil and oil products have been severely depleted. The trapped oil that has exited Hormuz represents only several weeks of supply, perhaps eight million barrels per day of production remain shut in, and Qatar has yet to restore its LNG production.
Today, host Daniel Sternoff sits down with Center on Global Energy Policy experts Anne-Sophie Corbeau and Karen Young to consider the near- and long-term outlook for energy markets. They discuss what's at stake for Iran, how renewed strikes impact traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and how a sustained uptick in hostility could impact the LNG market heading into winter.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff, Bill Loveless, and Daniel Sternoff. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.

Grid operators sit at the center of many of the biggest forces reshaping the global energy system. They're navigating rising electricity demand, a lack of transmission infrastructure, shifting regulatory policies, and maintaining the tricky balance between affordability, reliability, and the need for dispatchable power. 
Both here in the US and around the world, operating a reliable and resilient grid—in the face of increasingly severe weather and complex interconnection demands—is more difficult than ever. And these challenges are felt well outside the power sector. Spiking utility rates in some regions have turned electricity into a major political issue.
So, what does the future of grid planning tell us about the ultimate pace of the energy transition? How can system operators manage the surge in demand from AI and data centers without compromising reliability? And how can open-source grid planning tools help both developed and developing markets build a flexible power system for the next 30 to 50 years?
Today on the show, Jason Bordoff speaks to Alice Yake about the opportunities but also the challenges in building cleaner electrical grids.
Alice is vice president of GRIDS at Breakthrough Energy, where she leads a team focused on the development of an open-source grid planning ecosystem designed to make energy system modeling transparent, accessible, and trustworthy. Previously, she spent 14 years at the utility Xcel Energy, where she rose to chief planning officer. Before that, she worked for the oil and gas company Occidental. She started her career at Enron.
And for more about the Center on Global Energy Policy's work on electricity affordability, read here.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O'Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.