Work on this.
The Problem Solvers are the political leaders—elected and appointed—tasked with balancing the aspiration of historic climate mandates with today’s energy system realities. I’ve written this Both True for the energy leaders whose partnership they need.
Too many politicians and policymakers are still refusing to get real on energy.
In many blue and purple jurisdictions, climate still drives energy policy and permitting decisions. Political leaders in these areas still talk as if clean energy, affordability, reliability, security, and economic growth were all naturally and effortlessly advancing in lockstep.
And it’s pissing off voters—who are energy consumers one and all.
Voters are asking their electeds: Are you delivering enough energy to lower my bills? To keep my lights on? To allow businesses to thrive in my community? These are the sorts of questions that are defining today’s energy politics—not climate purity tests, not Do you support clean energy?, and not Are you on the right side of history? But: Can you keep prices tolerable, employers employing, and economic growth possible?
That’s why Problem Solvers find themselves squeezed between an outdated, climate-centric paradigm and the fast-moving, high-stakes energy needs of today. Problem Solvers must embrace a new kind of energy realism, one that allows them to be responsive to their bosses—the constituents—without giving up entirely on climate and emissions ambitions.
But when they look around, the Problem Solvers mostly see two unsatisfying factions: (1) climate scolds who understate the constraints and (2) energy incumbents who defensively oversell their own solutions.
What do Problem Solvers need instead? A pragmatic partner who can help them understand and manage the real trade-offs of delivering an abundant, lower-emissions energy future. Someone who understands growing energy demand, markets, infrastructure, cost of capital, and permitting. Someone who can articulate what could work, what conditions must be met, what trade-offs must be acknowledged and accounted for—and what sounds good but is actually Crazytown.
You—the oil and gas leader—should be a natural candidate for that role.
But right now, you are not.
The Problem Solvers—and the world—need you to be an energy realist. How do you answer the call? (Hint: You’ll have to earn their respect.)
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Both of these things are true:
- The Myth of an Easy Energy Transition lives! Problem Solvers are stuck with a paradigm that promised that climate ambition could be achieved without serious friction among energy demand, infrastructure constraints, permitting, reliability, geopolitics, and consumer cost.
- The Moment is here. Problem Solvers must legislate and regulate in a world where rising power load, affordability pressure, geopolitical risk, and grid constraints are making energy trade-offs impossible to ignore.
The situation: The ‘easy’ phase of climate politics has ended
Climate politics has always leaned too heavily on the assumption that cleaner meant cheaper, easier, more secure, and more popular. That assumption is now colliding with rising power demand, household affordability pressure, and geopolitical energy security.
Problem Solvers are trying to govern inside that collision. They need partners who can provide practical answers to the following questions:
- What can actually be built?
- Where is natural gas necessary? Where is it not?
- What lowers emissions without breaking reliability or affordability?
- Which reforms are politically feasible?
This is where you—the oil and gas leader—could certainly be useful.
Oil and gas leaders need to earn the call
You are best situated to help because the on-the-ground reality is complicated. You built and now run your operations in the real world. You’ve been living with those climate-driven legislative mandates and regulatory frameworks for some time now. You understand how to navigate difficult regulatory environments, unforgiving physical landscapes, and ever-evolving technology innovations. The devil is in the details—details that you understand.
You know where a modest regulatory fix would matter more than a sweeping political demand. You know where natural gas is actually needed for reliability, where it is not, and where the argument is weaker than some of our colleagues want to admit. You know what it takes to build infrastructure in communities that do not automatically trust you. You know that being essential is not enough.
The old posture of our industry will not earn us a call from the Problem Solvers. Yes, the argument “You still need us” is true—but insufficient. Earning the call means showing up with practical answers on
- Building diverse coalitions to support modest, appropriate regulatory reform (think labor + business)
- Crafting moderate, achievable legislative fixes that will allow regulations to be more functional (not the baby + the bathwater)
- Understanding how we got here and what is realistic now, preferably with data
- Assembling community-centered solutions and credible local allies
- Making clear distinctions between where oil and gas are necessary, useful, optional, or not the answer
- Identifying lower-emissions pathways proof points
Here’s the simple test of your impact: Can the Problem Solvers make their jurisdictions’ energy systems work better because you showed up?
Seize the day
The leaders who matter will act as partners to people with impossible governing jobs. They will
- Do the work up front. Name an internal company lead in each priority jurisdiction whose job is to understand the Problem Solvers: their pressures, their constraints, their politics, their timelines, and what they can and cannot actually influence.
- Workshop paths forward. What are the must-have legislative and regulatory fixes, and what coalition could help the Problem Solvers get there?
- Help build actual coalitions. The Problem Solvers need solutions and cover. Someone has to gather and rally the credible partners—which takes time, money, and persistence. Gather utilities, labor, business leaders, local community officials, and credible environmental voices to see what you can agree needs to get done.
Problem Solvers are under pressure because the old climate paradigm has fallen and a new energy paradigm has not yet replaced it. To usher that new era to life, they need your energy realism, your practical experience, and your partnership.
Forward this email to those ready to those colleagues ready to build a Problem Solver alliance team. Can you please heart this piece to help me grow my work? Thank you!
To real progress,
Tisha
