Energy Thinks: Hydrogen Horizons with Chevron’s Austin Knight
What You’ll Get in This Episode of Energy Thinks
A far-ranging conversation with Austin Knight, vice president of hydrogen at Chevron New Energies, that addresses head on a lot of the skepticism you might have about The Moment—about hydrogen’s role in the energy future, whether oil and gas companies should provide low-carbon solutions, and whether oil and gas expertise is best used in chasing new-energy solutions.
Why Austin Knight?
Austin came from outside our industry and recognizes both The Moment for the generational opportunity it is and the importance of engaging within and outside the industry to answer skepticism directly. We need giants like Chevron to lead in bringing energy solutions to market and then to scale, and we need to convey their success stories to our problem-solver stakeholders.
Some of Austin’s insights
On overcoming skepticism about new-energy efforts within the industry: “Innovation of this scale is not for the faint of heart. This is not for everybody, but you can spark something in people when you talk about the innovation, and advancing society, and the good that comes from a functioning energy system. I'm not backing down from any of those challenges.”
On what it will take to develop hydrogen projects at scale: “There's so much around the world that creates potential. I try to direct people to think about a few elements of that. And the first is policy, which really underpins everything. Are we serious about the climate goals and implementing pragmatic solutions to get there that will drive customer decisions?”
On the role of local stakeholder in project development: “You have to take it really seriously. Anybody doing these types of projects need to be proactive in their engagement with these communities and listen to individual communities.”
On persistence through the challenges of the energy transition: “Stay curious, have that growth mindset, because we don't know what we don't know, and we're crafting a new future. This is a moment like no other. This is our time to do something big. Stay excited! This is tough, because these are big, long-term investments that are being made. The whole world does not change overnight.”
Bonus Content!
Listen also to hear surprise insights from Austin’s leadership of the National Petroleum Council (NPC) Harnessing Hydrogen and learn about our weird shared career history around the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in Delta, Utah.
What to Do Next in The Moment
To daily diplomacy and its discontents,
Tisha
Principal at BPR Beverly Public Relations
1 个月Have you ever considered talking to someone who thinks the future (for human flourishment) is fossil fuels?