HOUSTON — The big, glitzy CERAWeek by S&P Global conference had a split-screen effect: optimism about low-carbon transition and fear about what could hinder progress, Ben writes.

The big picture: The sprawling weeklong event resists a single narrative, but high-level themes emerged.

📝Permitting angst is everywhere — for different reasons.

  • Biden officials want faster permitting to ensure climate law-backed projects don’t stall and there’s enough transmission to carry renewable power.
  • There’s a clear sense that even with stepped-up executive efforts, major legislation is needed, and Biden’s lieutenants made that case here.
  • The oil and gas industry wants faster approvals for gas pipelines and more. Legislation — which must back low-carbon and fossil projects alike to have legs — faces highly uncertain prospects.
  • Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tells me discussions on reviving Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill are “very active.”

🎂The new climate law is a BFD. Billions of dollars worth of incentives for hydrogen and other fuels are expected to bring new investment to create scale, a range of executives said.

  • “The level of support is astronomical,” Andy Marsh, CEO of hydrogen and fuel cell firm Plug Power, said on a panel. “If we are not going to be successful this time, we are never going to be successful.”

🛢️Everyone’s watching Alaska from Texas. The looming Biden team decision on ConocoPhillips’ big Willow project has much wider significance for industry.

  • They see it as a test of White House support for domestic production — “whether or not this administration is going to put policy behind the rhetoric they used at CERAWeek,” American Petroleum Institute head Mike Sommers tells me.
  • “Our member companies that don’t have anything to do with Willow expressed that to administration officials [who] attended,” he says, describing private discussions here.

🌍Energy transition dominates — and lacks definition. ICYMI, Andrew had a great piece yesterday about how oil executives talking up their low-carbon efforts here still see a long-term role for fossil fuels.

🐝The energy industry is increasingly cross-pollinated. Traditional boundaries are fraying as large companies diversify (something Politico nicely explored).

  • “I do think that today we view ourselves as one energy industry, not a clean energy industry and a dirty energy industry,” said Jigar Shah, who heads DOE’s clean tech loan programs office, in remarks Thursday.