Roger Pielke Jr.

On Wednesday in Denver, we had the pleasure of joining Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. (UC Boulder) and Chris Wright, CEO and Chairman of Liberty Energy for a live discussion as part of Liberty Energy’s “Liberty and Energy” Presentation Series. Roger is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of “The Honest Broker” substack (linked here). Roger’s work focuses on the intersection of policy and governance issues related to science, technology, environment, innovation, and sports. It was exciting to bring the Denver area community together and have a live, studio audience to discuss the current state of climate, energy and the environment broadly.

To kick off the discussion, Roger walked us through a presentation with key background on the current state of science around energy and climate (slides linked here). We then dove into how the broader population might get better data and discussion around energy and climate, issues with the IPCC’s summary for policy makers, how priorities in the environmental world have shifted to focusing primarily on climate, the impact of climate alarmism on children and young adults, and how Roger approaches teaching his students to appreciate the scale and complexity of energy and electricity in the world. Roger shares examples of the “scenario wars” that are taking place, his experience being investigated by Congress, and the overwhelming need for solid data on climate from a trusted, authoritative organization that allows for open discussion.

We also discuss the role of oil and gas companies in the energy world of tomorrow, the math of getting to net zero 2050, the desperate need for more energy in the developing world, the glaring opportunity for America to help power the world, and conclude with some inside scoop on Roger’s chances of joining the team with Coach Prime. As you will hear, Roger is a great explainer and wonderful thinker. We can’t thank the Liberty team enough for allowing us to be a part of it. The world needs more “Liberty and Energy” town hall gatherings!

As you will hear, Roger very positively mentions a podcast with Michael Liebreich and Jim Skea (the new head) of the IPCC. The episode is linked here.

As we head into the weekend, we wish you well and hope your team wins! If you do get out for a walk or otherwise have some time, we hope very much you can tune in to this Special Edition COBT. We learned a lot!

Updated 17 Aug 2023

Pielke Jr., R. 2023. Scenario Plausibility, IEEJ Energy Journal Special Issue January 2023

Harris, S., Jedlicka, S., Pielke Jr, R., & Ryan, H. (2023). The politics of exclusion: Analyzing US state responses to interscholastic transgender athletes. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 1-22.

Stenseth, N.C., Schlatte, R., Liu, X., Pielke Jr, R., Li, R., Chen, B., Bjørnstad, O.N., Kusnezov, D., Gao, G.F., Fraser, C. and Whittington, J.D., 2023. How to avoid a local epidemic becoming a global pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(10), p.e2220080120.

Pielke Jr, R. (2023). Improve how science advice is provided to governments by learning from “experts in expert advice”. Plos Biology, 21(2), e3002004.

Simmonds, R. and R Pielke Jr. 2023. Sport at the Climate Crossroads, chapter in Research Handbook on Major Sporting Events, R. Storm (ed.).