Jason Holt_E16: Lynchpins to a Low Carbon Future [10/12/2020]
Jason Holt, Investor at Baruch Future Ventures in The Bay Area [10/12/2020]
Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.
INTRO:
1:00 Shares background getting started as a young researcher working on methane measurements as an undergrad being advised by Sherwood Rowland — a Nobel Laureate. Talks about the group’s research on the ozone layer, and the criticism of the work during the 70s.
SECTION1: Climate Investor
3:00 Explains the dots connected between climate research, and the larger climate problems. Led him to apply to graduate school, getting a PhD at Caltech. Started in atmospheric chemistry originally, then moved into solar energy.
6:00 Talks about work after graduate school — Intel, then a staff scientist at Livermore Labs. Discusses the tradeoffs he faced, in being a research scientist, and how it demanded expanding to projects outside of his focus area.
9:00 Discusses research around next generation water desalination using carbon-nanotubes, publishing an article in Science. This led him to an accidental intro to a VC at X/Seed Capital who read the article and was interested in funding it. Talks about NanOasis, his nanotube desal startup, which eventually he exited.
12:30 Talks about experience working with Propel(X) as a Venture Partner, and their origin story — commercializing deep tech innovation. Shares the beauty of the strategy employed uniquely by Propel(X) — crowdsourcing the diligence and investment of science-based companies.
SECTION2: Policy and Science
15:00 Shares importance of Scientific Policies and influence of politics, in accomplishing long term impact, and the creation of new industries. Discusses growth of the solar market and subsidies with phase outs as the most strategic approach to building the renewables industry. Discusses the tipping point we’ve reached where new solar is cheaper than keeping existing coal-fired power plants operating. Jason believes that we need a Federal subsidy or policy based mechanism for carbon.
19:00 Discuss California’s phase out of new gas powered car sales, and the future of electric vehicles.
20:00 Explore the carbon dividend bill, especially the Van Hollen Act [See links below]. We discuss previous national GHG regulations, and some of the tradeoffs that made this legislation unpalatable with consumers. Jason is hopeful that a cap-and-dividend may be a good solution to this tradeoff problem. Study shows that 2/3 of households would earn more in dividends than they would pay in higher gas prices or other goods. [See links below].
23:30 We discuss the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” [ACES] and some of it’s shortcomings, including why it may not have passed the Senate. We also discuss the Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax and cleantech reinvestment — creating 70K green jobs. Jason shares how he thinks Scientists and Entrepreneurs should engage with Congress to help move the needle.
26:45 Discusses mentorship from Tom Baruch, and intro from Kauffman Foundation — sharing the origins and purpose. Talks about starting family office to encompass these verticals of Resource Tech: Air / Water Quality, Energy Systems, Food & Ag. Jason notes decarbonization overlapping all elements of Resource Tech. Talks about their target of annual reductions greater than 1Gtonnes of CO2 in prospective investments.
SECTION3: Hydrogen Economy
30:00 Talks about hydrogen as one of the lynchpins to a low carbon future. CO2 and hydrogen are both used to make almost any chemical made currently by petroleum feedstocks. Discusses decade old story of hydrogen, using water splitting made no sense — and natural gas is the conventional way of creating ‘brown’ or ‘dirty’ hydrogen. Talks about price parity in one of their portfolio companies.
33:00 Talks about hydrogen in transportation being a losing value proposition, at least in passenger vehicles. However, Jason believes that long haul opportunities for hydrogen may make strategic sense.
36:30 Back to decarbonization and hydrogen, and intermittency issues along with curtailment. Cheap hydrogen as a feedstock to ammonia production [a more transportable form]. Talks about applications in marine fuel as well.
38:00 Points to hydrogen in making feedstock chemicals (monomers) for polymers.
40:00 Regarding decarbonization, he points to nature-based solutions as well industrial approaches like direct air capture. They are invested in “metal organic frameworks” which are key materials needed for direct air capture. Talks about the evolution of nature, and how companies like StandardSoil [portfolio company] are restoring grasslands in the US via livestock grazing practices to offset CO2. They also recently made an investment in the marine space — using kelp grown on arrays in the open ocean (“marine permaculture”) as both a carbon sink and a source of valuable derivatives.
SOURCES:
-Jason K. Holt [Twitter]: https://twitter.com/JasonKHolt
-Jason K. Holt [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkholt/
-Baruch Future Ventures: https://www.baruch.vc/
-Tom Baruch [Wiki]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Baruch
-Sherwood William’s CFC Research: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/science/earth/f-sherwood-rowland-84-dies-raised-alarm-over-aerosols.html
-Science article referenced in show on Desal w/ Nonotubes: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5776/1034
-xSeed Capital: https://xseedcap.com/
-Buckminster Fuller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrVcDxSpwGM
-Propel(X): www.propelx.com
-California’s 2035 Gas Powered Phase Out [Washington Post]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/09/23/california-electric-cars/
-Basics of Carbon Fee with Dividend [Citizen’s Climate Lobby]: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/basics-carbon-fee-dividend/
-Backgrounder of Van Hollen’s Bill: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/sen-van-hollen-rep-beyer-introduce-carbon-cap-dividend-bill-congress/
-Official Van Hollen Act — Carbon Dividend: https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/news/press-releases/33-senators-introduce-legislation-to-achieve-net-zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-the-us-by-no-later-than-2050
-American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” [ACES]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Clean_Energy_and_Security_Act
-Why the Climate Bill in 2010 may have died: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2010/10/12/8569/anatomy-of-a-senate-climate-bill-death/
-British Columbia’s Carbon Tax: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/planning-and-action/carbon-tax’
-Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax [British Columbia]: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/financing-for-climate-friendly/revenue-neutral-carbon-tax
-Enel Green Hydrogen initiative: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-enel-hydrogen/enel-to-launch-hydrogen-business-as-part-of-green-drive-idUSKBN23Q1XN
-Renewable Ammonia value chain: https://ammoniaindustry.com/thyssenkrupps-green-hydrogen-and-renewable-ammonia-value-chain/
-Ammonia / hydrogen storage: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/12/3062/htm
-Sustainable Fertilizers: https://hcs.osu.edu/programs/ohio-floriculture/crop-culture-info/sustainable-fertilizers
-Green Fertilzers [hydrogen / ammonia]: https://www.fertilizerseurope.com/paving-the-way-to-green-ammonia-and-low-carbon-fertilizers/
-Biostimulants in ag: https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2018/12/biostimulants-what-are-they-and-do-they.html
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Song Credit: The Croft — By Joakim Karud
[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
