Released October 10, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--"Beware the tyranny of one right way" to manage the energy transition, said Scott Tinker, the chief executive officer of Tinker Energy Associates and the chairman of Switch Energy Alliance. Tinker was speaking at this week's Ninth Annual Energy Summit in Houston, co-hosted by Baker Botts LLP and the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute.
Tinker sees the energy transition as a three-legged stool. "We want it affordable. We want it reliable, and we want it clean. We want it all. The problem is ... everything has to sum to 100%. You want 100% clean, you don't get much of anything else." That's because "clean" is generally not affordable or plentiful enough to be reliable, he said.
Balancing among these three factors--affordable, reliable, clean--so everyone benefits is the biggest challenge. "It's an optimization problem," Tinker said. "You can't optimize everything 100%. And it's going to vary by region, for sure. I call this the radical middle, and I have for decades now."
"Reliable" includes energy security, partly due to a question about the supply chain: What nations do the necessary ingredients for each type of energy come from?
Tinker pointed out that years ago, China "bought the supply chains" of critical minerals for solar, wind and batteries. He believes moving away from fossil fuels would involve switching from production in the U.S. and OPEC+ to relying on China--and recent tariff wars have seen China shut some of that off completely.
"You have to decide who you want to be dependent on. Maybe both. Maybe optionality is good," he said.
More Than the Climate
"Clean" involves more than just the air. "We've gotten a little out of balance in Western Europe and the U.S. on the atmosphere," he said. While the climate is one pillar, water and soil are also important, and they suffer greatly in supposed "clean energy," he said.
Tinker showed slides of a lithium mine in South America, visualizing a muddy, bare ground riddled with ruts and tailing ponds. "You can see it from space," he said.
"There's no such thing as clean energy," Tinker said. "You either mine it or drill it."
Yes, there's wind and solar, but those can't directly energize a vehicle or run a factory. They involve mining and processing, as well as supply chains for delivery. Green vehicles put off fewer pollutants on the road, but that can't make up for the mining behind them.
From the Earth and Back to the Earth
Then you dispose of it--somewhere. "It gets made in energy collection systems, and it gets dumped back into the earth when it wears out of the atmosphere. And we do it over and over."
To illustrate, Tinker showed slides of worn-out wind turbine blades populating a landfill in Sweetwater, Texas, the hub of one of the largest windfarm regions in the world.
Renewable energy installation is another issue. Rebar and concrete for wind turbine bases require massive amounts of heat--often burning fossil fuels.
Non-binary can apply to energy. "It's not binary. They're not clean and dirty, good and bad."
Equality
For him the energy transition is as much about energy equity as cleanliness. Pointing out the disparity in health, education and quality of life between developed nations and the developing world, he said that getting clean, reliable and affordable energy to the latter should be a high priority.
One irony is that while polluting emissions are decreasing in developed nations, they are rising in the developing world, as the latter begins to build energy infrastructure and increase their demand to levels that can only be supplied by including fossil fuels in the mix.
The Emissions Shell Game
Some of that comes as the developed world is happy to have developing nations produce their goods in emissions-rich factories, he said, adding that, generally, poor countries produce and rich countries consume. But what he called a "shell game" on emissions can't work. "There's only one atmosphere," he said.
Showing a slide of Russia's Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi, Tinker joked, "Nobody's happier about this CO2 game than these three guys. Send us your CO2. We'll emit your CO2. We'll control the supply chains. We'll produce the products for the world. We'll be the leading manufacturers. We'll control a lot of stuff."
He continued, "I think they call each other every morning on some special line, just thrilled that the U.S. and Western Europe continue to do this to ourselves."
Meanwhile Europe and the U.S. and most of the developed world is pivoting toward energy security and away from Net Zero goals, he noted.
With all these moving parts, there are a lot of considerations in the energy transition, all of which must be balanced. Tinker recommended a reasonable, balanced approach, facing all the facts and dealing with the truth.
Other sessions at this conference covered ideas on supply chains in artificial intelligence (AI) and the power grid, oil and gas, and others, and those will be addressed here.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Tinker sees the energy transition as a three-legged stool. "We want it affordable. We want it reliable, and we want it clean. We want it all. The problem is ... everything has to sum to 100%. You want 100% clean, you don't get much of anything else." That's because "clean" is generally not affordable or plentiful enough to be reliable, he said.
Balancing among these three factors--affordable, reliable, clean--so everyone benefits is the biggest challenge. "It's an optimization problem," Tinker said. "You can't optimize everything 100%. And it's going to vary by region, for sure. I call this the radical middle, and I have for decades now."
"Reliable" includes energy security, partly due to a question about the supply chain: What nations do the necessary ingredients for each type of energy come from?
Tinker pointed out that years ago, China "bought the supply chains" of critical minerals for solar, wind and batteries. He believes moving away from fossil fuels would involve switching from production in the U.S. and OPEC+ to relying on China--and recent tariff wars have seen China shut some of that off completely.
"You have to decide who you want to be dependent on. Maybe both. Maybe optionality is good," he said.
More Than the Climate
"Clean" involves more than just the air. "We've gotten a little out of balance in Western Europe and the U.S. on the atmosphere," he said. While the climate is one pillar, water and soil are also important, and they suffer greatly in supposed "clean energy," he said.
Tinker showed slides of a lithium mine in South America, visualizing a muddy, bare ground riddled with ruts and tailing ponds. "You can see it from space," he said.
"There's no such thing as clean energy," Tinker said. "You either mine it or drill it."
Yes, there's wind and solar, but those can't directly energize a vehicle or run a factory. They involve mining and processing, as well as supply chains for delivery. Green vehicles put off fewer pollutants on the road, but that can't make up for the mining behind them.
From the Earth and Back to the Earth
Then you dispose of it--somewhere. "It gets made in energy collection systems, and it gets dumped back into the earth when it wears out of the atmosphere. And we do it over and over."
To illustrate, Tinker showed slides of worn-out wind turbine blades populating a landfill in Sweetwater, Texas, the hub of one of the largest windfarm regions in the world.
Renewable energy installation is another issue. Rebar and concrete for wind turbine bases require massive amounts of heat--often burning fossil fuels.
Non-binary can apply to energy. "It's not binary. They're not clean and dirty, good and bad."
Equality
For him the energy transition is as much about energy equity as cleanliness. Pointing out the disparity in health, education and quality of life between developed nations and the developing world, he said that getting clean, reliable and affordable energy to the latter should be a high priority.
One irony is that while polluting emissions are decreasing in developed nations, they are rising in the developing world, as the latter begins to build energy infrastructure and increase their demand to levels that can only be supplied by including fossil fuels in the mix.
The Emissions Shell Game
Some of that comes as the developed world is happy to have developing nations produce their goods in emissions-rich factories, he said, adding that, generally, poor countries produce and rich countries consume. But what he called a "shell game" on emissions can't work. "There's only one atmosphere," he said.
Showing a slide of Russia's Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi, Tinker joked, "Nobody's happier about this CO2 game than these three guys. Send us your CO2. We'll emit your CO2. We'll control the supply chains. We'll produce the products for the world. We'll be the leading manufacturers. We'll control a lot of stuff."
He continued, "I think they call each other every morning on some special line, just thrilled that the U.S. and Western Europe continue to do this to ourselves."
Meanwhile Europe and the U.S. and most of the developed world is pivoting toward energy security and away from Net Zero goals, he noted.
With all these moving parts, there are a lot of considerations in the energy transition, all of which must be balanced. Tinker recommended a reasonable, balanced approach, facing all the facts and dealing with the truth.
Other sessions at this conference covered ideas on supply chains in artificial intelligence (AI) and the power grid, oil and gas, and others, and those will be addressed here.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
