Former chairwoman of Citgo Petroleum on Venezuelan oil
Luisa Palacios, the former chairwoman of Citgo Petroleum, discussed what guarantees oil companies need before making big investments.
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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks are becoming increasingly important to judging the credit worthiness of electric utilities, especially as climate change makes their work more challenging.
On this episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks to Jim Hempstead, a managing director in Moody’s Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group. In his role at Moody’s, one of the largest credit ratings firms in the world, Jim helps oversee the North American Regulated Utility and Power Team. He also heads Moody’s working group in charge of ESG issues in the Americas.
In the conversation with Bill, Jim makes clear that defining ESG standards is still very much a work in progress for the credit rating firms and the companies they assess for credit worthiness. Nevertheless, ESG metrics are an important means of evaluating the utility sector where shifts are occurring not only due to climate change but also from public policies, market forces, and public attitudes about how electricity is produced and used.
Jim and Bill also talk about the relevance of government policy and regulation as it relates to ESG and the power sector, including recent developments in Washington D.C. and the enactment of an historic climate law in California.
Great power competition—particularly between the United States and China—is intensifying. This rivalry is reshaping everything from technology supply chains and energy security to the future of artificial intelligence. ...
Early on January 3, 2026, the United States apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and removed Maduro from power. Maduro was transported to New York, where he now faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
This has been a crucial year for US energy policy. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated many of the clean energy incentives that were...
Over the past week, President Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by targeting the regime’s economic lifeline—oil. The United States has seized two oil tankers...
Models can predict catastrophic or modest damages from climate change, but not which of these futures is coming.
The US intervention in Venezuela may jeopardize both the flow of discounted Venezuelan oil to China's teapot refineries and the role of Chinese oil companies in Venezuela’s upstream business.
In discussing the dramatic seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over the weekend, President Donald Trump declared that the United States would now “take back” the country’s oil. Yet he has offered little clarity on what exactly this means.
The country could see a relatively rapid recovery of some oil production, depending on the leadership that emerges.