(Cracking the Code with Greg Kozera - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Last week at the Outer Banks, our family discussed relationships. One of our friends has been married four times. A comment made was, “Of course, they married the same type of person all four times.” I remarked, “A definition of insanity is doing the same thing…” Lynnda, my wife, finished my sentence, “And expecting different results.”

The same is true in business, athletics and other areas of our lives. If we keep getting the same negative results, look at our thoughts and actions. An entrepreneur told me, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you always got.”

To get a different and better result we need to change us.

For our high school soccer team to go from only one win in the first seven games to winning a state championship required a lot of changes. We won our last seven games to finish the season with a championship.

A few years ago, I was doing a leadership seminar and stated, “People make decisions based on emotion and justify them with logic.” Then I asked, “Before you made the decision to get married, did you take out a yellow legal pad, draw a line down the center and write reasons to marry on the right and reasons not to on the left?” The group laughed.

As an engineer, I like to think I’m very logical. The biggest decision of my life was to ask Lynnda to marry me. It was strictly an emotional decision. It felt like the right thing to do. One gentleman surprised the group when he held up a legal pad and said, “I did! I’m twice divorced and don’t want to make the same mistake again.” He wanted to avoid the same mistakes.

We hear a lot about “energy transition.” We will always have energy transitions. The first was thousands of years ago from using human muscles to using animals to do many of our tasks. Today, many people assume energy transition will be replacing fossil fuels with renewables. Renewables have been trying to replace fossil fuels since the 1980s when we thought the world was running out of oil and natural gas. Over 40 years later, wind and solar provide less the 4% of electricity on the PJM power grid.

Four years ago, the legislature in Virginia mandated replacement of fossil fuels for electricity production by 2050, forcing coal plants (baseload power) in Virginia to close. They are facing power shortages and increased costs to ratepayers.

The week before Thanksgiving, Lynnda and I attended a conference on Virginia’s Clean Economy Act in Richmond. One big change in 40 years with solar is carbon-sequestering forests are being cut down to install solar panels. Remember what we said about insanity. My comment to the moderator was, “When I fly out of Norfolk, I see thousands of acres of rooftops. Why not install solar panels on rooftops close to where power is needed, minimizing line loss, reducing transmission cost and saving Virginia’s forests.” They said there were regulatory and legislative barriers. (All within their control). A change in thinking is required to get a better result.

Next week at a gala in New York City, the winners of the Platts Energy Awards will be announced. Shale Crescent USA (SCUSA) is a finalist for the Platts Global Energy award in Energy Transition Downstream competing with companies like Valero, Repsol, Bharat Petroleum Co. and the Multi Commodity Exchange of India.

Instead of focusing on the fuel, like in Virginia and Europe, SCUSA focused on the goal of reducing emissions. People are far more concerned about their electric utility bill and natural gas bill than climate change. That was seen from polls in Pennsylvania prior to the election. Based on election results, people voted for fossil fuels.

The SCUSA energy transition plan uses natural gas as a baseload fuel and teams it with solar and wind to allow more of these fuels to be used. It encourages manufacturers to expand in or return to West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania from places like China whose emissions have yet to peak. By building on top of their feed stock and energy and in the middle of their customers, they reduce shipping, energy costs and global emissions.

A company from India is under construction in the Ohio Valley. They will use energy and feedstock from SCUSA instead of the Middle East. They will sell their U.S. customers the same product they were shipping here from India. Now it will be a U.S. product made by U.S. labor with a greatly reduced carbon footprint. U.S. companies are expanding in the SCUSA and companies from Europe and Asia are planning to expand to the region because of proximity to a large market and economical, dependable energy.

When the focus is on the result not the fuel, new and creative technologies can come into play. One company has a successful pilot project taking carbon dioxide and instead of sequestering it, they use it as a feedstock to create commodity chemicals. Other companies are working on ways to decarbonize coal and natural gas. This can be done quicker than nuclear power and hydrogen can be developed. Eventually there will be replacement fuels for coal and natural gas, but no one knows what the replacement will be or when it will happen.

In the meantime, natural gas can be quickly expanded to produce the power needed for expanded U.S. manufacturing and high-power demand data centers. Americans can still have dependable, economical, 24/7/365 electricity.

Continuing to do the same things and expecting a different result is insanity. More importantly, it puts human lives at risk in blackouts and creates hardships for all but the wealthiest of Americans.

Shale Crescent USA is up against tough competition in New York City for the energy award. Most importantly, the SCUSA message of a common sense energy transition can get attention creating a win for all Americans, the people of the SCUSA and our planet.

Thoughts to ponder.

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Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and over 40 years experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.