Energy Brief: The costs of having so few women in oil and gas, the Hollub-aloo over Anadarko & more

ENERGY’S OPPORTUNITY GAP. This op-ed makes the (not difficult to wrap your head around) case that the lack of women in the power sector is a “a squandered economic opportunity.” Globally, males hold about 75 percent of all energy sector jobs, according to the piece [The Hill]. National nonprofit Women’s Energy Network wants more women to consider careers in the male-dominated oil and gas industry, and to that end is expanding its operations in Texas. “There is definitely tremendous growth for female engineers, in particular,” said guest speaker Barbara Canales, a county judge who is also an engineer, speaking at a meeting of the organization’s Corpus Christi chapter. “There’s been an empty seat at the table and I think when you bring in a different perspective to any type of homogeneous group you’re going to benefit” [KRIS 6 News].

THE HOLLUB-ALOO OVER OCCIDENTAL’S ANADARKO DEAL. Anadarko shareholders didn’t hesitate on Thursday to approve the sale of the company to its rival, Vicki Hollub’s Occidental Petroleum, for $38 billion. The sale has been the subject of a massive public rift between activist investor Carl Icahn and Hollub. Icahn described the deal as “one of the worst I’ve ever seen” in an interview on Thursday, and that’s in addition to several ad hominem attacks he previously launched at Hollub [Reuters & CNBC]. Earlier in the week, Occidental beat earnings estimates for Q2, even as it posted a 14 percent drop in quarterly profits. Its stocks took a hit [Yahoo! Finance].

SHE’S GOT THE MOVES. Lynn Good’s Duke Energy named a new legal chief, Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, who was the company’s South Carolina president. Duke’s current lead counsel, Julie Janson, will become the president of the Carolinas [Corporate Counsel]. Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management director, Mary Jo Rugwell, is retiring after more than three decades with the agency. Rugwell was the state’s first female director [Greenwire]. The CEO of carbon recycler LanzaTech, Jennifer Holmgren, joined the board of Sustainable Bioproducts, which specializes in alternative protein foods (think Beyond Meat) [BioSpace].

EXTRA, EXTRA. New Mexico’s commissioner of public lands, Stephanie Garcia Richard, weighed in on a plan to build twin nuclear-waste storage facilities in the middle of the Permian Basin. She wrote a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission opposing the plan, which she said would put the waste sites “smack in the middle” of the key U.S. oil field [WSJ]. Green Greta Thunberg set sail Wednesday for the U.S. for the U.N.’s climate talks, shunning the much speedier, more comfortable aviation option because of its enormous carbon footprint. We’d impress ourselves if we had one-tenth of just one ounce of that commitment, but we salute her and aspire to her earth-saving ways [NYT].

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