Energy Giants: Looking for Innovative Investments

Join me as I moderate this panel on corporate investors looking for innovative technologies that fit their corporate strategies. Hope to see you there.   

Energy Giants: Looking for Innovative Investments

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Large and forward-looking corporations want to be on the ground floor of the next wave of energy innovation. Corporate investors are looking for innovative technologies that fit within their corporate strategies. In addition to financial assistance, these corporate investors are also assisting to commercialize technologies within the large and changing energy markets. Learn about this and more by attending this informative and lively dialogue in which industry experts will address these and other key questions. Sponsored by Pepper Hamilton LLP's Energy Group and Emerging Company Group and the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic, this session examines the recent resurgence in corporate venture activity in the energy space - particularly among Fortune 500 companies - and the many new players involved in the industry. Join us to learn more about this complex and important topic.

5:30 - 6:00 p.m. Networking and Registration

6:00 - 7:00 p.m. Program

7:00 - 7:30 p.m. Networking

Pepper Hamilton LLP

3000 Two Logan Square

Eighteenth and Arch Streets

Philadelphia, PA  19103

Welcome & IntroductionThomas P. Dwyer, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP

Moderator
Scott E. Anderson, Global Marketing Director, Cleantech, Ernst & Young LLP
Co-Founder, Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic

Speakers

Grant Allen, Senior Vice President, ABB Technology Ventures
Sumit Sarkar, Director, NRG Ventures
Michael Smith, Vice President, Head of Constellation Technology Ventures at Exelon

Contact Kristen Clark at clarkk@pepperlaw.com or 412.454.5049 with questions.

CLICK HERE to register for this event.

(Full disclosure: I am co-founder of the Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic.)

John Rowe on Energy Policy: Above All, Do No Harm

Exelon CEO John Rowe addressed the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, yesterday outlining an economic approach to energy policy for the 112th Congress.

Rowe has always been forward-thinking on the issue of a price for carbon and action on climate change -- and his company remains committed to its goal of reducing, offsetting or displacing its entire carbon footprint by 2020.

Here is a video of his speech:




And here are links to his speech text and presentation.


(Disclosure: I hold a long position in EXC. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

End of Carbon Credit Market? The Green Skeptic on FOX Business

I spoke this morning with Stuart Varney on FOX Business about the end of the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Obama administration's newly announced program to encourage energy efficiency upgrades.




If your browser doens't support this video format, here is a link: Green Skeptic on FOX Business

Industry Reps at MIT Energy Conference: Give Us a Price on Carbon

The message from industry leaders attending the MIT Energy Conference this weekend is clear: "Give us a clear price on carbon."

John Rowe, CEO of Exelon, has long been a proponent of cap-and-trade.

He reiterated this support this morning in his opening keynote, saying he felt "a bit like Elizabeth Taylor's eighth husband: I know the drill, but I'm not sure how to make it interesting."

Rowe is not so enthusiastic about our ability to reduce emissions through increasing deployment of renewables, at least not at current prices and efficiencies.

"Our work shows you can do some things with renewable energy standards," Rowe told the audience. "But you don't want to bet the farm on your picks."

Rowe secretly prefers a carbon tax, telling the audience, "Every six months I call Rohm Emmanuel and ask him if it's time yet to try a carbon tax." But he knows that it just won't happen.

Still, Rowe asserts, "We need lower carbon energy. We need more secure energy. And we need to harness the market to get it, but a market that is constrained and directed."

These sentiments were echoed by just about every industry representative I've seen at the conference.

"We need a level playing field," Helene Regnell of Maersk Line, the largest container shipper in the world, told the audience gathered for a panel on "Supply Chain Energy Use. "We need standardized, strong international regulation on carbon in order to get where we need to go and how we get there."

Speaking on the same panel, PepsiCo International's David Walker concurred, adding that 80 percent of his company's carbon footprint comes from outside the company itself.

It is hard to operate internationally with cumbersome, often conflicting regulations that differ from country to country.

The answer, at least from industry's perspective, is a clear price on carbon.

"We have to use the market to get to a $20-30 per ton price on carbon," Exelon's Rowe said. "And that means cap-and-trade or a tax. We can do a lot with carbon at $20-30 a ton."