Energy Security and Climate Initiative

The U.S. energy industry is headed for an upswing, but that has more to do with the discipline that a period of low oil prices has instilled in companies and less to do with the president's policies. But public knowledge of the energy industry is not very extensive, if he takes credit for the health of the industry, people may buy it.

I'm not sure if the population pushed the leadership, or if the leadership's interest in [climate change] moved the population along. The government's role in educating the public about climate change depends on the robustness of a country's media and other private sources of information.

Comments like those made by Trump last week undercut the soft power of the U.S. and tarnish the country's reputation - and the reputation of Trump himself. They probably create some domestic politics problems for countries that want to buy LNG from U.S. suppliers.

Neither Congress nor the administration is putting much attention on what we know would have a big impact on long-term transformation of the energy system—massive innovation and deployment of new technology. Meanwhile, the country and markets stumble on.

[On the role of the U.S. federal government in U.N. climate negotiations] I’m sure that the U.S. has lost some credibility. Dealing with the United States in an environment like this, you can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em. The United States is an enormous force for good.

Increasing the transparency of pledges would make it easier for countries to pressure each other do more, which is how the Paris Agreement was designed. Countries could come back and say, ‘Here’s what has worked, what didn’t, what our progress is and what other countries can learn.' We know from other areas of international cooperation that that dynamic actually works pretty well.