Energy Gang · Wood Mackenzie

Energy Gang’s year in review: the highs, the lows, the people and the technologies of 2025

December 18, 2025·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Ed Crooks names New York Governor Kathy Hochul person of the year for congestion pricing — and a Cornell study shows a 22% drop in PM2.5 pollution within months.

The year gets the round table treatment. The panel works through a year one speaker calls noisy, using data, atmospheric science, and energy basics to keep the conversation grounded. A clean energy investment figure opens the tape, and the cold open catches the group reacting to how large the number has become compared with only a few years earlier, partly because of battery price changes. Someone asks for an under-over. It is a dry aside, but it gives the year in review format a little snap without pulling the show away from its technical footing. The sponsor message stays close to policy. ACOR is presented through affordability, reliability, clean energy deployment, and a claim that nearly 80% of utility-scale clean energy investment involved its members. Then the discussion turns personal. Fatih Beral is named as the top person of the year pick, just ahead of Catherine Hayhoe. The reasoning stays tied to reports, clear public language, and voices willing to say what the data show. Hayhoe gets the most careful defense. The panelist values her insistence that climate change is already affecting people, while still bringing listeners back to atmospheric science and practical response. Plain language becomes the test. The $0.10-word example lands because technical knowledge only matters if people can use it. The group sounds reflective, not triumphant. Even the holiday close points toward continuing the conversation into 2026, with Amy, Melissa, Shanu, and Ed shaping the farewell and Melissa noted as having left early. The final credits keep the ensemble feel, thanking producers Toby Biggins-Gilchrist, Stuart Duffy, and Dan Cottrell.

As heard by us

A sharp year-end energy roundtable on clean investment, climate communication and who made 2025 easier to understand.

Energy Gang's 2025 year in review works as a brisk stocktake of a noisy energy year, with Ed Crooks steering Amy, Shanu and Melissa through highs, lows, notable people and technologies.

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Why you'd press play

For a calm 2025 energy review that stays focused on the data, press play.

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