This week on the podcast, Jackie and Peter unpack key themes from the CERAWeek conference held in Houston from March 23–27, 2026.

Highlights from the conference include:

• Canada is back on the global stage: Senior political leaders promoted energy investment opportunities, with notable alignment between federal and provincial governments.
• Iran conflict and the Strait of Hormuz: Experts from multiple perspectives shared views on the conflict and the challenges of reopening the Strait, with general agreement that doing so would be difficult.
• U.S. energy dominance and permitting reform: Senior U.S. officials shared goals to expand energy production and streamline permitting processes to accelerate project development.
• Energy security for importers: Ongoing geopolitical uncertainty is reinforcing the need for diversified energy supply (across energy types and geographic sources) and increased domestic production among importing countries.
• AI and electricity demand: While innovation continues, electricity supply is still considered the key constraint on the pace of AI-driven growth.
• Quiet momentum in clean energy: Despite reduced policy support and funding, companies continue advancing technologies, with potential for meaningful breakthroughs in the years ahead.

Content referenced on this podcast:

• National Petroleum Council study on permitting reform, “Bottleneck to Breakthrough: A Permitting Blueprint to Build” (2025)
• NVIDIA and Emerald AI Join Leading Energy Companies to Pioneer Flexible AI Factories as Grid Assets (March 23, 2026)

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This week, our guest is the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. The conversation was recorded at CERAWeek in Houston on March 24, 2026.

Here are some of the questions Jackie asked Minister Hodgson: How is Canadian energy being perceived at CERAWeek, particularly in the context of the war in the Middle East? Do you expect that Canada will meet the Prime Minister’s targets of 50 million tonnes per annum of LNG exports by 2030 and potentially double that by 2040? What steps is Canada taking to attract the hundreds of billions in capital required to advance and build major projects, particularly amid strong competition from the United States? With the first deadline for the Alberta–Ottawa Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) just one week away, what progress has been made, and what are the prospects for advancing a 1 MMB/d oil pipeline to access Asian markets? Is Canada fiscally competitive, especially given its carbon pricing and policy framework compared to the United States? And finally, what opportunities lie ahead for Canada in electricity generation growth?

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Over the past decade, the Canadian economy has been driven largely by consumption and government spending, while business investment has remained relatively flat. To accelerate Canada’s economic growth, an objective emphasized by Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada will need stronger business investment, particularly investments with the “one-two punch” of growing the economy through increased capital spending in the early years and greater exports in the longer term.

To explore the historical drivers of GDP and what expanded export capacity could mean for Canada’s economy, Mark Parsons, Vice President and Chief Economist at ATB Financial, joins Jackie and Peter on the podcast. The discussion ends with answering the question: What would an additional 1.5 million barrels per day of oil pipeline export capacity, including a West Coast pipeline to Asia and other expansion projects, mean for Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth and jobs outlook over the next decade?

Studio.Energy and ATB have collaborated on a series of reports examining Canada’s GDP and the potential economic impact of increased oil export capacity. The series also includes background articles explaining how GDP is calculated and historical trends.

These articles are available on both the Studio.Energy and ATB websites (see links below).

Content referenced in this podcast:

• Peter Tertzakian’s op-ed in The Hub.ca: The next act in the oil crisis: Time to get ready for rationing and hoarding? (March 13, 2026)
• Seeking Shelter: Iran and the Next Structural Shift in Global Oil Markets (March 9, 2026)
• Studio.Energy reports on Canadian GDP and pipelines:
  • The GDP Payoff of Additional Oil Pipeline Capacity (March 18, 2026)
  • Canada’s GDP Dilemma: The Illusion of Growth (March 5, 2026)
  • Other background reports on GDP: Canada’s Economy Under Siege (January 30, 2026) and What is GDP, Really? (February 5, 2026)
• ATB reports on Canadian GDP and pipelines:
  • The GDP Payoff of Additional Oil Pipeline Capacity (March 18, 2026)
  • See all GDP reports at: Special Reports | ATB Financial
  • Background report on productivity and the importance of the oil and gas sector, “Productive diversification: Maintaining Alberta’s productivity edge” (August 2024)

Please review our disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/

Check us out on social media:

X (Twitter): @arcenergyinst
LinkedIn: @ARC Energy Re