On this episode of the Energy Perspectives Podcast, recorded at the 2026 Carbon Solutions Forum in San Diego, Yuhau Lin, Vice President, Head of Environmental Markets, Americas at Morgan Stanley, and Statton Hammock, General Counsel at Verra, join Chris Davis, Senior Fellow, The Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative at High Tide Foundation.

They explore the shift to a carbon market 2.0, where project promises are written into contracts and checked with better monitoring. They also cover the new demand coming from Article 6 and CORSIA, and whether enough high-integrity supply can be delivered in volume and on time to meet it.

Lin explains why capital-intensive carbon projects need financing in place at the time of commitment, and who should carry the risk that remains.

Hammock describes why buyers want credits with demonstrated, measurable outcomes, and how digital MRV (measurement, reporting, and verification) can speed up project reviews.

Tune in to hear the one change each guest would make to accelerate the market, from better technology to an institution that steps in to assume some of the risk.

• Financing capital-intensive carbon projects

• Measurable outcomes and credit integrity

• Digital MRV and real-time project data

• Reversal risk and who carries it

• 0:00 Introductions

• 0:47 The state of the carbon market

• 2:36 Financing capital-intensive projects

• 5:04 From meeting a standard to measurable outcomes

• 6:23 Putting project commitments into contracts

• 9:04 Digital MRV and real-time data

• 11:14 Removals and reversal risk

• 12:11 Who should carry residual risk

• 13:33 Buffer pools and new insurance products

• 14:34 One change to accelerate the market

• 17:39 Enough supply to meet new demand

• 18:26 Closing

Register for our upcoming forums below:

Carbon Solutions Forum + Geothermal Day, San Diego, California, February 17 to 19, 2027, https://energy-dialogues.com/events/carbon-solutions-forum/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=csf27&utm_content=verra-ms-podcast-description

North American Gas Forum, Washington, DC, November 30 to December 2, 2026, https://energy-dialogues.com/events/north-american-gas-forum/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nagf26&utm_content=verra-ms-podcast-description

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Website: https://www.energy-dialogues.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ytwebsite&utm_content=verra-ms-podcast-description

In this episode of the Energy Perspectives Podcast, recorded at the 2026 Carbon Solutions Forum in San Diego, Brad Townsend from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, sits down with J. Andrew McAllister, Commissioner at the California Energy Commission, and Francisco Leon, President and CEO of California Resources Corporation.

The conversation explores how California is balancing decarbonization goals with a return to electricity load growth, where permitting is moving and where it still slows projects, and how integrated approaches across power, fuels, and carbon management are meeting surging demand. Topics include the CEC's new Opt-In permitting pathway, California's first EPA Class VI carbon sequestration permit, next-generation geothermal and long-duration storage, and the case for shifting financing from ratepayers to private capital.

Key Themes:

• California's load growth outlook, driven by transportation electrification with data center demand on the horizon

• Permitting reform and the CEC's new Opt-In pathway

• Integrated carbon management: CRC's first-in-state CCS project, compressed air storage, advanced geothermal

• Shifting the financing model from ratepayer recovery to private balance sheets

Chapters

0:00 Introduction
2:30 California's load growth outlook
4:33 Why electrification is an affordability play
7:08 What hyperscalers want from the grid
12:45 What California has built in six years
15:00 The CEC's Opt-In permitting pathway
18:00 CRC's integrated carbon management thesis
20:14 Modernizing existing facilities
22:00 The first EPA Class VI permit and Kern County project
24:05 Capital, speed, and the cost of solving for perfect
27:33 Changing the financing model

29:30 Closing

Learn more about the Carbon Solutions Forum: https://energy-dialogues.com/events/carbon-solutions-forum/

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In the data center world, every client conversation starts in the same place: speed to power. DG Matrix and Satterfield & Pontikes Construction built a turnkey partnership around that demand, and this episode is the story of how it came together.

Michael Wood III, Director, Commercial Development at DG Matrix, and Cam Thrutchley, VP, Mission Critical at Satterfield & Pontikes Construction, join Monika Simões, CEO and Founder of Energy Dialogues, and host Will Bernholz. Wood describes customers who arrive asking for one thing, megawatts delivered as fast as possible, and how that pushed DG Matrix to line up partners across the entire data center life cycle. Thrutchley explains how Texas Senate Bill 6, and its requirements above seventy-five megawatts for behind-the-meter power and battery storage, pointed Texas projects toward a multi-port power router and made the partnership obvious.

Simões traces what happens when two industries with different clocks end up in the same room. Energy thinks in multi-year permitting and interconnection timelines. Data centers do not. The three also cover where this started: Wood and Thrutchley met at the North American Gas Forum years before any business came of it, when Wood was still a student, and Thrutchley describes what it is like to now be doing business with someone he first met as a mentee.

Key Themes

• Speed to power is the first thing clients raise in every data center conversation
• Texas Senate Bill 6 requirements above seventy-five megawatts pushed Texas projects toward behind-the-meter power and battery storage
• Energy works on multi-year permitting and interconnection timelines, and data center schedules do not
• Trade partners choose who they build for, which turns relationships into a delivery constraint
• A connection made at an Energy Dialogues forum became a commercial partnership years later

Chapters

(0:00) Speed to power and what data center customers are buying
(3:15) How the Texas turnkey partnership came together
(6:31) Two industries, two different clocks
(9:11) Michael Wood III's path from student to DG Matrix
(13:22) Legacy, mentorship, and being a great neighbor
(17:16) What happens after the forum
(21:43) Building a network that produces partnerships
(25:49) Selling down to the trade partners
(27:56) Closing thoughts

Register for our upcoming forums:

Permian Energy Dialogues, Austin, Texas, September 15 and 16, 2026
https://energy-dialogues.com/events/permian-energy-dialogues/

North American Gas Forum, Washington, D.C., November 30 to December 2, 2026
https://energy-dialogues.com/events/north-american-gas-forum/

Subscribe and follow for more conversations from Energy Dialogues forums.

Follow Energy Dialogues:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energy-dialogues/
Website: https://www.energy-dialogues.com/