ARC ENERGY IDEAS

This week, our guest is Mike Law, former president and CEO of the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO). Mike now leads MGL Advisory Services Ltd. and advises several companies, including Energy Alberta, where he is head of power system integration. Energy Alberta is proposing a nuclear generating station in northern Alberta's Peace River region. 
The podcast touches on a long list of Canadian electricity policy initiatives, including the federal government’s Nuclear Energy Strategy (June 22) and the Electricity Strategy (May 14). Other policies that are impacting investment and growth forecasts include the Alberta-Canada MOU, the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER), and – specific to Alberta – the new Data Centre Regulation and the Restructured Energy Market (REM). 
Topics covered include Canada’s need for new electricity generation to meet growing demand, including from AI data centres; how the CER is creating uncertainty for investment in new natural gas generation; and how Alberta’s REM adds another layer of uncertainty. The discussion also covers Canada’s new nuclear strategy and the plan to build 10 new reactors, including how it compares with the U.S. push toward a similar target. Finally, Mike outlines Energy Alberta’s large-scale Peace River nuclear project, including timelines, regulatory requirements, costs, and stakeholder engagement. 
Content referenced in this podcast:  
Nuclear Energy Strategy for Canada (June 29, 2026) 
Powering Canada Strong: A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy (May 14, 2026) 
Energy Futures: BC Hydro Turns Back to Natural Gas to Help Fill Electricity Gap (June 1, 2026) 
Alberta Data Centre Regulation (June 9, 2026) 
CBC: Power plant proposed for area northeast of Edmonton inches closer to becoming reality (June 24, 2026) 
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This week on the podcast, our guest is Angela Stent, a globally recognized authority on U.S.-Russia relations. Angela has held senior roles at Georgetown University, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Brookings Institution, the U.S. State Department, the National Intelligence Council, and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others. She is also an award-winning author; some of her books include The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest (2019). 
Russia's war with Ukraine is increasingly becoming an energy war. As Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities improve, it has begun hitting Russian energy infrastructure with growing success, meaningfully reducing Russia's ability to produce refined products and crude oil. Jackie and Peter explore the complex geopolitics of the conflict with Angela, including Russia's relationships with Europe, the United States, and China. They also discuss the implications for Canada, including the growing attractiveness of energy from a stable supplier, a point recognized at the recent G7 meeting in France, where Canada was identified as a welcome source of energy to diversify away from supply routed through the Strait of Hormuz. 
Jackie and Peter ask Angela: Ukraine has delivered military strikes deep inside Russia this year — does that kind of pressure move Putin toward ending the war? How does Putin view the recent U.S.-Iran conflict, and what are the implications for the Russia-Ukraine war? Beyond Ukraine, is Russia a threat to other European countries? What is a realistic path to ending the war, and what would the best-case scenario look like? 
Content referenced on this podcast: 
G7 leaders' statement on geopolitical issues (June 17, 2026), welcoming the potential of Canada to deliver significant additional capacity to global markets in the coming years  
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This week on the podcast, Peter and Jackie begin with the big news of June 14th: the United States and Iran have reached a preliminary agreement to end the war, which takes the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). While the agreement leaves numerous details to be settled, both sides expect that shipping will resume through the Strait of Hormuz as a result. 
They then recap last week's episode with the Honourable Brian Jean, Alberta's Minister of Energy and Minerals, and his optimism about changes in the province that are expected to shorten regulatory timelines and advance a West Coast oil pipeline application toward submission in July. Peter and Jackie also discuss Alberta's referendum question this fall on separation, and how foreign investors may view it. 
On June 9, 2026, Peter Tertzakian toured Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, British Columbia, which exports Western Canadian crude oil to tidewater. Peter shares some of what he learned, including comments from people working at the terminal on safety, tanker filling times, and the project to deepen the channel, which would increase the amount of crude oil that can be loaded onto each ship. 
Content referenced in this podcast: 
Photos from Peter’s tour  
Trans Mountain website 
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This week, our guest is the Honourable Brian Jean, Alberta's Minister of Energy and Minerals. The conversation was recorded at an ARC Financial event in Calgary on June 9. 
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has underscored the importance of energy security and supply diversity. This, along with more supportive federal policies, is raising expectations for growth in Alberta’s oil and gas sector. 
On the podcast this week, Jackie asks Minister Jean about Alberta’s opportunity to expand oil and gas production, including: Is the Strait of Hormuz closure and the Iran war reshaping how people view Canadian energy? What is Alberta's goal for oil production growth, and what changes, regulatory and otherwise, are supporting that goal? How does Alberta benefit from the build-out of LNG export capacity on the West Coast? The Canada–Alberta MOU outlines a plan to submit a 1 MMB/d oil pipeline to reach Asian markets to the Major Projects Office, with the aim of starting the regulatory review by early July. What is its status, and does the decision on the large oil sands CCS project affect the path forward? Are discussions underway with BC on the pipeline and with local communities, including Indigenous groups? And what are Alberta's opportunities in mineral production and, potentially, processing? 
Content referenced in this podcast: 
Canada Government, Overview of Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy: AI for All (June 4, 2026) 
Global Energy Show (June 9 to 11, 2026) 
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The podcast opens with updates on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a German state-owned energy company contracting for Canadian West Coast LNG, and the Pope's theological document warning about AI. 
Next, Peter and Jackie introduce this week's guest, Marc Spieler, Senior Managing Director for the Global Energy Industry at NVIDIA, joining from Houston, Texas, to discuss the latest developments at the intersection of AI and energy. 
Energy and AI are deeply interlinked. Energy companies are using AI to improve efficiency across oil and gas, renewables, and emerging sources such as next-generation fission and fusion. At the same time, AI's explosive growth is driving significant new electricity demand, requiring a build-out of both generation and grid infrastructure. 
Predicting future power demand from AI remains uncertain; it depends on the pace of adoption and whether GPUs, along with other delivery components of the digital infrastructure stack, will become more efficient over time. Marc highlights that data centres are becoming more flexible, with the ability to reduce consumption during periods of grid stress. This would allow new data centre capacity to be added without straining the grid, while also lowering costs for all power consumers by improving system utilization during off-peak periods. 
Content referenced in this podcast: 
NVIDIA Blog with examples of energy company AI applications: Efficiency at Scale: NVIDIA, Energy Leaders Accelerating Power‑Flexible AI Factories to Fortify the Grid (March 2026) 
NVIDIA’s NeMo Framework was used for asset integrity and reliability at Petrobras (March 2025) 
NVIDIA’s Earth-2 library of open models, libraries, and frameworks that democratize global access to professional-grade weather and climate AI 
NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factory reference design to maximize efficiency (March 2026) 
NVIDIA and Emerald AI, along with other energy companies, pioneer flexible AI factories (March 2026)  
Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence (May 25, 2026) 
Please review our disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/ 
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