The HC Commodities Podcast Important, Growing in Demand and Hard: Energy with Mike Howard
Feb 4, 2026
Mike Howard, founder and CEO of Howard Energy Partners and chemical engineer, shares his perspective on energy’s growing demand and delivery challenges. He uses Texas as a case study. Topics include why shale scaled, the Texas paradox of high production but reliability gaps, market design and incentives, hyperscalers’ huge power needs, and the role of dispatchable capacity.
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Three Foundational Truths About Energy
- Mike Howard's three foundational truths: energy is important, demand is growing, and energy is hard.
- He built Howard Energy Partners to address those realities with long-term infrastructure investment.
How The Shale Revolution Really Unfolded
- Mike recounts the Barnett Shale and 20 years of iterative innovation that re-piped America with shale gas.
- He credits relentless optimizers and private property incentives for the shale revolution's scale.
Energy Access Drives Human Development
- Access to affordable energy strongly correlates with better health, education, and GDP.
- Howard argues restricting fossil fuels without thermodynamically viable replacements hurts human wellbeing.
