Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig continues with my next scheduled show on  April 11th (Wednesday at 9:30-9:55 am CT) on KPFT in Houston (90.1 FM).  You can listen live when the show is on-air by clicking here: Listen Live (32k)

My confirmed guests will be Edward Hirs and Michael Skelly. The topic we’ll begin to explore is “Energy Independence: We Talk About It, But What Does It Mean?”

The show runs less than a half hour, so I’m providing some additional background for listeners who want more depth on the guests and topics.

Below are autobiographical sketches of my guests, and below that are links to articles and background material which they have suggested.

Mr. Skelly and Mr. Hirs have provided the following autobiographical information.

GUEST: Michael Skelly

Michael Skelly is the Founder and President of Clean Line Energy. Michael founded the company with the hope that Clean Line’s projects will bring about thousands of megawatts of new renewable energy projects. 

Prior to founding Clean Line, Michael led the development of Horizon Wind Energy from a two-man company to a leadership position in the U.S. wind industry. Before Horizon, Michael developed thermal, hydroelectric, biomass and wind energy projects in Central America with Energia Global. In the early 1990’s Michael co-founded the Rain Forest Aerial Tram, a mile-long tramway system which takes visitors on an aerial tour of the rain forest in Costa Rica. In 2008, he ran for the United States Congress as the Democratic nominee in the 7th District of Texas.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Notre Dame. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Central America before obtaining an MBA from Harvard Business School. Today, Michael sits on the boards of C12 Energy, Amonix, and the Houston Parks Board.

GUEST: Edward A. (Ed) Hirs III

Edward A. Hirs III is a corporate finance professional with 30 years’ experience advising and working with venture-funded start-ups, high growth companies, and large industrial companies. He is currently the Managing Director for Hillhouse Resources, LLC, an independent E&P (Exploration & Production) company targeting conventional and unconventional assets onshore along the Gulf Coast.  The company currently holds 30,000+ productive but unexploited acres in the most drilled county in the United States.

Previously, Mr. Hirs was CFO of DJ Resources, Inc., an early leader in the Niobrara play in the Denver-Julesberg Basin.  At DJ Resources, Mr. Hirs completed equity fundings, bank financings, derivatives trading and operations, and the installation of accounting systems and controls.  In 2010 Mr. Hirs managed the monetization of DJ’s assets, which returned 8.2x cash initial investment to shareholders.  Prior to joining DJ Resources, Inc., Mr. Hirs ran Hirs & Company, a corporate finance advisory firm and successor to Niven Associates, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising for independent oil and gas producers. 

Mr. Hirs teaches the graduate and undergraduate courses in Economics of Energy at the University of Houston, and chairs a national energy conference at Yale University.  Mr. Hirs began his career at Mobil Oil, and he worked at the US Department of Energy at the Office of Conservation and Solar Energy.  He has been interviewed as an expert in energy economics by Forbes, The Houston Chronicle, The New York Times, BusinessWeek and Marketplace on NPR, and Houston’s television affiliates for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.  He co-authored with Robert Ames, Anthony Corridore and Paul W. MacAvoy the following papers on energy economics, all of which are posted on SSRN.com: “Crude Oil Imports and National Security“, “Synfuels to Replace Crude Oil Soon“, and “Replacement of Coal by Fracgas in the Generation of Electric Power.” 

Mr. Hirs has been a member of the CFA Society of Houston for which he has sponsored and led multiple review sessions for the society’s CFA Study Review for many years.  Mr. Hirs holds the CFA Charter and is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Mr. Hirs is an honors graduate of Yale University where he earned the BA and MA in Economics in 1979 and MBA in 1981.  He has previously taught econometrics in Yale College and corporate finance in the Jones School at Rice University.  Mr. Hirs is a fellow of Timothy Dwight College at Yale University. 

Mr. Skelly suggests the following background reading:

• Houston CultureMap Digital Magazine(www.culturemap.com): How Houston can remain the world’s energy capital: Embrace wind and solar now (1/24/2012)
• From the blog of Cleanline Energy:
  • “This is an incredibly exciting time to be developing infrastructure projects…” (11/23/2011) [Has numerous embedded links – Mike)
• Op-Ed, AOL Energy: The Tools To Power Our Recovery (11/10/2011)

Mr. Hirs suggests the following background reading:

• “Crude Oil and National Security”  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1544606
• “Synfuels to Replace Crude Oil Soon”  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1782144
• “Replacement of Coal by Fracgas in the Production of Electric Power”  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1914656
• The Unsustainable Costs of Partial Deregulation http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1090826 (Mr. Hirs’ recommendation: “… a very relevant book by Paul W. MacAvoy which is necessary for explaining challenges with the nation’s natural gas pipeline network and electricity transmission network.”

This will be a short and quick-moving show. Time permitting, I will try to allow call-ins during the latter part of the show. I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!