Energy is suddenly at the center of almost everything.

Consumers feel it at the gas pump and in their electricity bills. Businesses feel it in operating costs. AI companies need enormous amounts of power for data centers. Governments are racing to secure oil, natural gas, critical minerals, and clean energy supply chains. And conflicts thousands of miles away can quickly move energy prices around the world.

The result is a new energy economy in which energy prices, economic growth, artificial intelligence, national security, and geopolitics are increasingly connected.

So what is driving the cost of energy? Where will the next wave of power come from? And what does rising energy demand mean for businesses and the global economy?

HWA speakers who have shaped energy policy, global markets, national security, and economic strategy offer an inside view of the forces reshaping how the world produces, prices, and consumes energy. Their experience gives organizations direct access to the leaders helping make sense of the new energy economy.

Why Are Energy Prices So Hard to Predict?

Energy prices are shaped by a global mix of supply and demand, geopolitics, infrastructure, weather, and government policy. The price at the pump may feel local, but the forces determining it are anything but.

Energy diplomat and national security leader AMOS HOCHSTEIN has spent years at the intersection of global energy markets, diplomacy, and national security. A former Senior Advisor to the President for Energy and Investment and U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator, he brings firsthand experience spanning oil and gas markets, energy infrastructure, and negotiations in the Middle East. He offers an inside view of how geopolitical events can ripple through global energy supply and prices.

The equation is becoming even more complicated as demand grows. AI, advanced manufacturing, electrification, and data centers are adding new pressure to energy systems already navigating geopolitical instability and a historic transition.

For business and policy leaders trying to plan for their organization’s or country’s energy future, understanding energy increasingly means understanding the world around it.

How Do Energy Costs Affect Inflation, Business, and the Economy?

Changes in oil, gas, and electricity costs can ripple through inflation, interest rates, consumer spending, business operations, and global markets. Energy costs matter because nearly every industry depends on fuel or electricity, turning shifts in the energy market into broader economic consequences.

Economist MOHAMED EL-ERIAN helps leaders understand how shocks move through the global economy, from inflation and monetary policy to markets, investment, and consumer behavior. Energy is a particularly powerful variable because it touches nearly every part of economic activity.

Former National Economic Council Director GARY COHN brings the perspective of both markets and policymaking. For businesses, changing energy costs can influence everything from margins and supply chains to investment decisions and long-term competitiveness.

Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair and National Economic Council Director LAEL BRAINARD brings another lens to the relationship between energy prices, inflation, economic policy, and American industry.

Together, their perspectives help answer a question with consequences far beyond the energy sector: What happens to the economy when the cost of powering it changes?

Can the U.S. Power the AI and Data Center Boom?

AI is creating a new source of electricity demand as companies build the data centers and computing infrastructure required to train and run increasingly powerful models.

That is turning the AI boom into an energy story.

Former U.S. Secretary of Energy JENNIFER GRANHOLM has worked directly on many of the questions now moving to the center of the AI economy: grid capacity, domestic energy production, clean energy, nuclear power, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

As investment pours into data centers, utilities, businesses, and policymakers face a fundamental challenge: generating enough electricity while keeping the grid reliable and energy affordable.

The race for AI leadership may ultimately depend on more than chips and models. It may depend on who can generate enough reliable power to run them.

Is Nuclear Power Making a Comeback?

Nuclear power is returning to the energy conversation as countries search for reliable, low-carbon electricity to meet rising demand.

The growth of AI and data centers is adding urgency to that conversation. Nuclear energy can provide large amounts of consistent electricity, making it increasingly relevant to debates about energy security, climate goals, and the future of the grid.

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, brings decades of experience at the intersection of nuclear technology, international security, and global affairs.

As countries reconsider their energy mix, nuclear power raises questions that are simultaneously economic, environmental, technological, and geopolitical. The debate is no longer simply whether nuclear belongs in the energy transition, but what role it should play in meeting the world's growing demand for electricity.

When Does Energy Become a National Security Issue?

Energy becomes a national security issue when countries cannot reliably access the power, resources, infrastructure, or supply chains their economies depend on.

ELIZABETH SHERWOOD-RANDELL, former U.S. Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy Secretary of Energy, has worked across energy, defense, and national security at the highest levels of government. Her experience illuminates why reliable infrastructure, resilient supply chains, and access to critical resources are not simply economic concerns.

Countries that depend heavily on others for fuel, critical minerals, technologies, or infrastructure can find those dependencies transformed into strategic vulnerabilities.

Energy security today is about more than having enough oil or electricity. It is about whether an economy can continue functioning when the global system is under pressure.

The Global Competition for Energy Resources in the New Energy Economy

The global energy transition is becoming an economic competition over resources, technology, investment, and supply chains.

Economist DAMBISA MOYO examines the forces shaping global growth, investment, commodities, and geopolitical risk. Her perspective puts today's energy competition in a larger context: countries are not only deciding how to power their economies, but competing over the resources and technologies that could determine who benefits from the next era of growth.

That competition spans oil and natural gas, renewables, nuclear power, batteries, critical minerals, and the infrastructure needed to connect it all.

The winners of the new energy economy may be the countries and companies that can do something deceptively difficult: produce more energy, keep it reliable, control its cost, and build the infrastructure required before demand arrives.