Livingstone, Deputy Director in our Global Energy center where i need to work on climate and advanced energy. Thank you very much for joining us here today. Its a terrific to see a full room, particularly amid the dark days of august when so many folks in dc leave for cooler or at the very least, less humid climates. It is surely a traffic registration of interest in this topic and before we get started let me give a big thanks to zach strauss and are Global Energy and art interns who are instruments and making today happen along with our talented medications and events team. They are truly a testament to the assets and professionalism of the Atlantic Council. Dive in to todays discussion by noting that not only are you here because youre fascinated by the narrative that surround the climate challenge in the Energy Transition but you are likely also very interested in the narrators that help us to understand the complexities, ambiguities, leading characters in the emerging solutions at the heart of this complex set of issues. There is no shortage of news if you glance at the headline today from reuters to quartz to Time Magazine and beyond and it points to the gravity and urgency of the climate challenge. Just this past july was the hottest month ever across the globe in history, in recorded history. Its all the more notable because the previous record in 2016 curd or coincided with an el nino year which boosted what arty would have been a warm year. This year does not solve the record shattering july we just had is all the more notable. Europe has spent much of the summer months sweltering heat waves earlier this year we also saw much of the american heartland underwater essentially amid heavy rains and flooding even amidst the critical pleading season. At the same time, however, we also see indicators that point just to at least some modicum of confidence and optimism in the Global Energy transition which is underway and in india we see Renewable Energy costs which are now on average below the average cost of coal power in india and in the United States we see governors, state legislators, mayors, utilities announcing mid century one 100 Clean Energy Targets or midcentury that Carbon Neutral targets one after another after another and in many cases legally binding and enacted by state legislators. In laboratories and pilot projects around the world we also see the technologies of the future being pulled towards personality in the present by innovators and venture capitalists and by public and private finance and these are technologies of course, such as Carbon Capture, advanced nuclear new battery chemistry and Hydrogen Technologies which may be essential tools in decarbonization and in the race to zero and mission over the decades to come. Here to navigate these complex set of storylines on the shoals of pessimism and optimism are three meeting and accomplished Energy Journalists from courts, reuters and Time Magazine. Without further ado let me briefly introduce them and jump into todays discussion. To my immediate left is Senior Reporter for quartz and we are proud to say senior fellow by Global Energy center. To his left is valerie, corresponded with Reuters News Agency based in washington dc covering regulatory deregulatory development and across multiple different u. S. Agencies and a broad swath of environmental energies. To her left a writer of Time Magazine covering energy, environment and Climate Change. Previously covering health and science time in politics at roll call. You folks familiar with the technologies and with the policies and with the politics indeed of the Energy Transition and Climate Policy and climate challenge. Why dont we begin by at least level setting with an understanding of how they themselves frame their own projects. Lets begin with you. How would you describe your work in terms of what you are trying to do with it . Not just your job title but what is meant to achieve and what is your journalism aimed at and how does that inform between what signal and what is noise in this very cacophonous world out there . Spirit yeah, i got into Energy Journalism as many people did after trump was elected president to try to understand why this complex system is so difficult to first understand at the lehmans level because until people are able to grapple with the issues they wont be able to choose the right leaders. I thought the roots and was to try to understand one part of the problem at a time. Taking the whole [inaudible] which is what i do to quartz with a lead Energy Reporter on the global stage is to try to do justice and so i started with the technologies for the last three years of the pleasure to be able to capture Carbon Capture initially electric cars and batteries and now ask what im looking at coal in india. All that time the nice thing is looking at a Single Technology isnt always enough but its how it fits in the complex system that is the key to understanding what the future will be and so use that as a way to clear the base of knowledge and look at every other piece of the pie and this year since [inaudible] the newsletter gives me ive been doing that reading for a while but gives me the excuse to try and filter the noise into a signal of what is really changing any Energy Landscape and in that is being declined and not a fun way of doing that. Not just a journalist but in a sense a curator. Yeah, and i think to some extent everyone is that now. Very good. Reuters journalist we are a news agency and have to cover all the major policy rollouts and announcements and what we are seeing now is there is a lot of noise and a lot of policy rollouts or speeches where for example, the recent speech at the white house where the administration was pointing to some of their commitments which do not necessarily match up and they were pointing to improvements of air pollution since the 1970s but not pointing to what their contribution is given the rollbacks so i think our job is more different these days as you have to i guess, you have to rely a lot more as you always do speaking from multiple sources but its not just straight reporting of a policy rollouts or fed but more context and moving parts. Its a different landscape that was a few years ago and theres a lot more noise and different voices now and their youth activists and more traditional Environmental Groups and Industry Groups within the Industry Groups you have different position so i find the landscape is quite different than a few years ago and the good thing is, i think, or reaching out to a lot more varied voices covering the beat today. Definitely. I want to touch on that today. First, just in. For me its unique and interesting challenge to be the only person who spends my fulltime job at Time Magazine thinking about energy in varmint climate so i have to think about really diverse set of issues. I think my mission in doing that is to think the person who reads our magazine or subscribes to our magazine and reads a couple stories i hear about Climate Change and how can i make sure they are in some way uptodate and somewhat uptodate about Energy Transition or just the various things i might write about every month or so and then on my day to day job im doing something for the web but its also about making things accessible and have to be get beyond the audience in this room and reaching everyday people and i think separating symbols from noise in some ways not having to file something on a daytoday basis allows for that and gives you away because you can see what the trends are and when is the right moment to write something and just talking to people and getting a feel of what signal and what is noise. Terrific. I should mention we will be interspersing audience questions about the entirety of today, not just at the end. Already start thinking if you do have questions i will come around soon after a few more of my own we will do that back and forth throughout this event. Start thinking of potential questions you might have already. I want to ask first what is the most misunderstood aspects of your journalism and in particular, or climate or Energy Journalism and you think its an accurate view of the craft and output and the motivation of it or do you think its probably misunderstood . One thing, not sure if this answers your question exactly but one thing i often find is talking to people of diverse views from activists is there will be a voice from the oil and gas industry in your story and by vice versa from those in the Oil Gas Industry saying if you will be an activist and i cant promise you either way but part of my job is to create a narrative, a story, factbased story about whats happening so i think there is this perception that journalists i guess, they have the flexibility to not present that comprehensive picture and i think thats a little bit of a frustration. I would add that one of the most misunderstood aspects of energy in general is this sense people have that one solution will do the job for us. The variables themselves [inaudible] Carbon Capture will solve the climate challenge and i think partly because the complexity is not well explained to people but also its understanding that complexity once it has been laid down is not easy. As a journalist i find that hardest part of my job to have done the work and understand a certain technology how do i make it work for the general leader who comes from essentially no Knowledge Base and how to get them to understand just why its a complex world i want to build off something you both touch on. You mentioned theres no Silver Bullet but just and you give reference to an onsite environmentalist on the other side oil and gas industry and im curious whether you as journalist in your work sense theres more heterogeneity than ever before with how the oil and gas industry is engaging with the Energy Transition and adapting to the Energy Transition at least from my perspective, the research we do it looks like your companys which are doubling down on Core Competencies and they will become more of a gas company that oil company and others that are moving downstream into the power sector and at least companies that they are acquiring more Energy Service companies that oil and gas traditionally have been new got others that are taking big bets on moonshot technologies like fusion get others that are involved in biofuels or doubling down on Carbon Capture and what is your own mental model of [inaudible] for how to understand the oil and gas industry in the current day and age . How has it shaped your work for the stories you write . I know you just did a recent piece on one aspect selector with you. [inaudible] its pretty clear from how if you look at the future projections i have this chart in the story i wrote which the headline was exactly that. In 2014 what might have been oil demand and varied between 60 Million Barrels a day to 120 million a day and that they huge difference in demand and so i think its fair to say that they are confused but also we are in a place where that confusion is warranted. Nobody knows how this will play out . To have these Large Companies make bets that are varied across technology and across policy landscape and some people think there will be a price and some people think there wont be one but heres the good thing. Thats what makes it fun to cover. To provide a little narrati narrative. Yes. Would you say a quick thing about your recent article about foxy Accidental Petroleum and what they made on capture. In general could split the Oil Industries in first two parts, one is the International Company and publicly owned and then the National Oil Companies and the clear differentiation between the there far behind on the climate agenda that International Companies and within the International Companies there much more further ahead in understanding of climate challenge in doing something about it. And the American Oil Industry tends to lag. The occidental was interesting one because it came from an organization that was previously a laggard as many analysts would say and is now meet over american Oil Industries and essentially have met [inaudible] they will spend up to a billion in the next three years building that technology out at scale, capturing half a million tons every year. Ive been covering this view for a while and did not expect that to happen that quickly. I think with all the talk around that zero emissions targets and deepsea carbonization all the president ial candidates are talking about it theres an interesting moment for the oil and gas sector and maybe a speak about the national gas sector because im working on a story [inaudible] likely seen in berkeley, california and the National Gas Industry now where a few years ago saw this as part of the climate solution as the cleaner option are now seeing themselves as a potential target city in statewide policies potentially National Policies and i think there at an interesting moment where right now it seems like they might be focusing on a bit of Image Campaign and remind people that natural gas is is a cleaner burning or fossil fuel but people can people like gas stoves and its a cleaner alternative to oil, heating oil and to call. They are also realizing we need to talk about renewable gas and Carbon Capture on natural gas so there is an interesting time where that the shift from being part of the solution to part of the problem is pretty rapid. Interesting. I think its a fascinating moment just to think about this is an industry that is in transition and there are a lot of narratives that have been the narrative for some time that are evolving and i think oftentimes a lot of stories to do fall back on old narratives but we have to figure out how do we tell this really complex picture where some oil and Gas Companies are doing nothing and some are doing a lot and a lot are doing somewhere in between what does it mean to do something to make it does not fit with a narrative. Its a challenging and its a fun challenge but a challenge. Valerie, you touched on the politics of 2020 in the president ial rates, we are in and having this conversation in dc so we should probably engage to keep focus of the sound and you had a very well read article earlier this year the covered in the early stages of the race before we had entered in the first debate writing about the direction that the biden campaign, according to advisers, was going which aimed at a centrist approach and it sparked a lot of debate on mine and on twitter et cetera amongst very influential figures across the spectrum and do you want to talk a little bit about that article and were you surprised by the debate it sparked and do you think its had a Material Impact on the direction of the conversation or at the very least the direction of the biting can be policy. A speak to the first part of the question. I was surprised at their reaction and the kind of yeah, the the way the other campaigns were used against biden so i think a lot of people were curious early on and you just enter the race in an oped in the race for the long and a lot of people were curious and more broadly on the former Vice President would approach issues and try to find that kind of moderate or more practical approach that would assume would play better in the general election. I think that this particular issue was the first pace of it was the first test of it and in talking about finding a middle ground to climate solution i dont think what they meant to say was middleoftheroad and i dont think that was the intention but i think the aim was to try to craft a policy that would be able to satisfy progressives of the Democratic Party while not alienating some of those bluecollar workers that may have left or voted for donald trump in the previous election and i think theres still a lot of fears of a repeat of Hillary Clinton and made about putting coal miners out of work that the possibility of alienating those voters. What happened was i dont think the campaign had at that point were not answering a lot of questions on policy and their first event was the first launch event was with a union so clearly they were sending a message. I dont know if they anticipated what the reaction would be and how much the activists have been or