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ROBERT BRYCE

One of America’s Most Prominent Energy Journalists and Authors, acclaimed author of six books on energy and innovation


  • Provides insight into the global economy
  • Uses extensive knowledge to debunk energy myths
  • His new documentary, Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, was released in mid-2020
  • His first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, received rave reviews and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly.
  • In the ancient world it was guns, germs, and steel that determined the fates of people and nations; now, more than ever, it is electricity
  • Although global demand for power is doubling every two decades, electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably

Robert Bryce is a Texas-based author, journalist, podcaster, film producer, and public speaker.  Over the past three decades, his articles have appeared in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Review, Field & Stream, and Austin Chronicle.

His new documentary, Juice: How Electricity Explains the World, which he produced along with Austin-based film director Tyson Culver, was released in mid-2020 and is now available on numerous streaming platforms including: iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vimeo, YouTube, Xbox, and Vudu. A review of Juice in Birth. Movies. Death said the message of the film “is delivered with ease and precision through smooth editing, narration, and interviews with succinct information from the past, present, and potential ideas for the future. Filled with beautiful aerial shots and poignant scenes on par with images out of National Geographic magazine, Culver’s documentary debut is enlightening and powerful.”

Bryce has published six books. His first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, received rave reviews and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2002 by Publishers Weekly. His second book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superstate, was published in 2004. His third book, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence,” published in March 2008, was favorably reviewed by more than 20 media outlets. The American magazine called Gusher “a strong and much-needed dose of reality.” A review of Gusher by William Grimes of the New York Times said that Bryce “reveals himself in the end as something of a visionary and perhaps even a revolutionary.”

In 2010, Bryce published Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy, and the Real Fuels of the Future. In a review of Power Hungry in the Wall Street Journal, Trevor Butterworth called the book “unsentimental, unsparing, and impassioned; and if you’ll excuse the pun, it is precisely the kind of journalism we need to hold truth to power.”

In 2014, he published Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong. In National Review, John Daniel Davidson wrote “the other big theme of Bryce’s book: The enemies of innovation, by and large, are environmentalists who claim to be defenders of the ‘natural’ world — so long as it does not include humanity….The data, which Bryce applies in heavy doses, add up to this: In almost every corner of the global economy, innovation is increasing efficiency and in the process driving up profits and creating wealth and prosperity.”

In March 2020, his longtime publisher, PublicAffairs, published his sixth book: A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations. Here’s the summary:

In the ancient world it was guns, germs, and steel that determined the fates of people and nations; now, more than ever, it is electricity.

Although global demand for power is doubling every two decades, electricity remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and do so reliably. Today, some three billion people are still living in places where per-capita electricity use is less than what’s used by an average American refrigerator. How we close the enormous gap between the electricity rich and the electricity poor will affect everything from women’s rights and health care to warfare and climate change.

In A Question of Power, Robert Bryce tells the human story of electricity and explains why some countries have successfully electrified while so many others remain stuck in the dark. He shows how our cities, our money—our very lives—depend on reliable flows of electricity. Electricity has fueled a new epoch in the history of civilization. A Question of Power explains how that happened and what it means for our future.

Bryce has given nearly 400 invited or keynote lectures to dozens of groups including the Marine Corps War College, Sydney Institute, Jadavpur University, Northwestern University, and a wide variety of professional associations and corporations. He has also appeared on dozens of TV and radio shows including NPR, BBC, MSNBC, Fox, Al Jazeera, CNN, and PBS.

He spent 12 years as a reporter for the Austin Chronicle. From 2006 to 2010, he was the managing editor of the Houston-based Energy Tribune. From 2010 to 2019, he was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. From April 2020 to September 2021, Bryce was a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

He lives in Austin with his wife, Lorin, who is an art teacher, photographer, and master potter.

Robert tailors each presentation to the needs of his audience and is not limited to the topics listed below. Please ask us about any subject that interests you:

  • Climate change
  • Energy transition
  • Electric grid
  • Environmental Policy
  • Green and Sustainability
  • The Myths of Green Energy

Economic Growth, Climate Change, and the Innovation Imperative

The world’s insatiable demand for energy is complicating efforts to address climate change. In this talk, Robert Bryce will discuss the technologies and fuels – including nuclear energy – that will be needed to meet soaring global demand for electricity and motor fuel. Bryce will explain how ongoing innovation in every aspect of the energy and power sectors – from batteries and solar panels to internal combustion engines and fission reactors – will help us reduce the risks of climate change while also improving the lives and living standards of billions of people around the world.

Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future

The fuels of the future can be described as N2N: natural gas to nuclear. Regardless of what you think about peak oil or global warming, natural gas and nuclear are the fuels of the future because they can provide significant quantities of the energy that the world needs and do so using a small environmental footprint. Further, they are the low-carbon alternative to coal.

Although renewable energy sources are getting lots of hype, there is simply no way that they can provide the scale of energy that the global economy demands. Global energy demand now totals about 226 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Renewable energy sources may be growing fast, but they cannot, will not, replace a substantial portion of our hydrocarbon consumption during our lifetimes.

Hydrocarbons are here to stay. Canada has built a $1.4 trillion-per-year economy (and the US a $14 trillion-per-year economy) that is based on hydrocarbons: coal, oil, and natural gas. We cannot - and will not - quit using carbon-based fuels for this simple reason: they provide the power that we crave. Nine out of every 10 units of energy we consume come from hydrocarbons.

The Shale Gas Revolution has fundamentally changed how Canada, the US, and the rest of the world should be thinking about gas. And those changes are only now beginning to be understood.

A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations 

In this talk, based on his latest book of the same title, Robert Bryce will explain why electricity has transformed humanity like no other form of energy. Despite its transformative power, some 3 billion people are still living in places where per-capita electricity use is less than what’s used by an average American refrigerator. Closing the enormous gap between the electricity rich and the electricity poor will affect everything from women’s rights and health care to warfare and climate change. Bryce will discuss the fastest-growing sources of new electricity demand – Big Tech and Big Cannabis – and explain the factors that are needed to supply reliable and affordable electricity. He will also spotlight the fuels that will power the electric grids of the future and explain why, in the 21st century, power equals power. 

Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong 

For decades, even centuries, we have been repeatedly warned that we are headed for disaster. Indeed, since the days of Thomas Malthus, we’ve been told that we are using too much of everything and that catastrophe looms. But the prophets of doom continually overlook an obvious fact: More people are now living longer, freer, healthier lives than at any time in human history. In this talk, Robert Bryce will show how ongoing innovation in everything from energy extraction and mobile phones to agriculture and engines is raising living standards all over the world. No one told inventors or entrepreneurs to make things smaller, faster, lighter, denser, and cheaper. Instead, they have been doing that on their own. The result of this continuing innovation: poverty and disease are on the run all over the world. If you need a dose of optimism, one that will inoculate you against the endless doom and pessimism that dominates the daily news, this talk is the one for you

Power Hungry: The Myths of ""Green"" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future 

The promise of "green jobs" and a "clean energy future" has roused the masses. But as Robert Bryce makes clear in this provocative book, that vision needs a major re-vision. We cannot -- and will not -- quit using carbon-based fuels at any time in the near future for a simple reason: they provide the horsepower that we crave. The hard reality is that oil, coal, and natural gas are here to stay.

Fueling our society requires more than sentiment and rhetoric; we need to make good decisions and smart investments based on facts. In Power Hungry, Bryce provides a supertanker-load of footnoted facts while shepherding readers through basic physics and math. And with the help of a panoply of vivid graphics and tables, he crushes a phalanx of energy myths, showing why renewables are not green, carbon capture and sequestration won't work, and even -- surprise! -- that the U.S. is leading the world in energy efficiency. He also charts the amazing growth of the fuels of the future: natural gas and nuclear.

Power Hungry delivers a clear-eyed view of what America has "in the tank," and what's needed to transform the gargantuan global energy sector.