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Carbon Credits for Mitigating Orphan & Idle Oil Well Methane Emissions 11/1/2024

Carbon Credits for Mitigating Orphan & Idle Oil Well Methane Emissions

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton, Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, and Student Researcher Vandan Bhalala write about how it is well understood that permanently plugging old, abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S. can make a big impact in our nation’s efforts to combat global warming.  Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, public funding has increased to properly plug many orphan wells.  November 1, 2024.

Demystifying Hydrogen: Production Pathways, Applications, Storage & Transportation (Part 1) 10/24/2024

DEMYSTIFYING HYDROGEN – PRODUCTION PATHWAYS, APPLICATIONS, STORAGE & TRANSPORTATION (PART 1)

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and Student Researcher Siddhant Kulkarni write about how as global efforts to decarbonize the economy intensify, hydrogen is emerging as an important component of the clean energy transition.  Hydrogen offers a versatile, low-carbon solution that addresses the limitations of electrification in sectors like heavy industry and transportation, making it a critical tool in the global push toward sustainability.  October 24, 2024.

FINANCING OPTIONS & LIABILITY MANAGEMENT IN CCS 10/24/2024

FINANCING OPTIONS & LIABILITY MANAGEMENT IN CCS

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler presented at the Houston Strategy Forum’s “Carbon Conclave” held on October 22, in Houston, TX.  This paper addresses some of the academic and advocacy communities’ thinking on the state of risk management and financing opportunities for the U.S. CCS sector, and the Payne Institute’s perspective on some of these issues that comes out of its ongoing work in carbon finance and some specific work looking at managing liability in CCS.  October 24, 2024.

Critical minerals mining and Native American sovereignty: Comparing case studies of lithium, copper, antimony, nickel and graphite mining in the United States 10/24/2024

Critical minerals mining and Native American sovereignty: Comparing case studies of lithium, copper, antimony, nickel and graphite mining in the United States

Payne Institute Communications Associate Macdonald Amoah, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Fellow Dustin Mulvaney, Director Morgan Bazilian, NAMES Director Richard Luarkie, and Daniel Cardenas write about how owing to the historical patterns of colonialism and settlement, many of the remaining undeveloped mineral resources needed for a low-carbon energy transition are located on lands that have historic, ancestral, or cultural significance to Native American Tribes and Indigenous communities, as well as are near environmental-sensitive areas, managed by multiple agencies with goals across the spectra from natural resource development to cultural resource conservation.  Through a comparative case study approach, this study analyzes mining projects seeking to develop these resources.   October 24, 2024. 

Moving in the wrong direction

Moving in the wrong direction

Payne Institute’s Earth Observation Group provided the satellite data in this article about flaring emissions from global upstream oil and gas production activity increased by 7% from 2022 to 2023, according to latest Rystad Energy research. Upstream activities emit about 1 gigatonne per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) in total, with flaring contributing around 30% of those emissions in 2023 assuming 98% flaring efficiency on average. October 15, 2024.

How clean energy legislation can incentivize US mineral production 10/11/2024

How clean energy legislation can incentivize US mineral production

Payne Institute Communications Associate Gregory Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the presidential candidates disagree on much, they seem to largely agree on the need to support domestic critical mineral projects.  The next president needs to prioritize minerals and metals production in jurisdictions with high labor standards, especially the United States. Importantly, existing U.S. government programs can be modified to incentivize U.S. mineral production.  October 11, 2024.  

Payne Institute for Public Policy 2024 State of Critical Minerals Report highlights potential of mining tailings and steep nickel cost curve 10/10/2024

Payne Institute for Public Policy 2024 State of Critical Minerals Report highlights potential of mining tailings and steep nickel cost curve

A new critical minerals report from The Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines highlights the vast potential from mining tailings, the steep cost curve for Nickel, new legislation focused on increasing the domestic mining of critical minerals and the U.S. government’s recent $4.9 billion of investments in mining and processing.  October 10, 2024.

THE STATE OF CRITICAL MINERALS REPORT 2024 10/10/2024

THE STATE OF CRITICAL MINERALS REPORT 2024

The Payne Institute for Public Policy and the Colorado School of Mines has released its second annual State of Critical Minerals Report. Building on last year’s report, which provided a comprehensive overview of the supply, demand, technical and political landscape for critical minerals globally, this year’s edition targets the U.S. federal response, while also examining dynamics that will impact the mining industry’s ability to meet the needs for critical minerals that are presented by the global energy transition. Highlights include the vast potential from mining tailings, the steep cost curve for Nickel, new legislation focused on increasing the domestic mining of critical minerals and the U.S. government’s recent $4.9 billion of investments in mining and processing. October 10, 2024.

Crested Butte celebrates permanent protections for its ‘Red Lady,’ a victory 47 years in the making 10/8/2024

Crested Butte celebrates permanent protections for its ‘Red Lady,’ a victory 47 years in the making

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jessica Smith contributes to this article about how Sue Navy’s moment finally came, it took nearly 50 years.  For decades, she and many others, protested, fundraised, lobbied, filed lawsuits and negotiated with government leaders and industry executives to permanently protect Mt. Emmons, which, at about 12,400 feet, towers over the town from the west and often glows red at dawn and dusk. October 8, 2024.

CHINA, CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES, AND NATIONAL SECURITY 10/2/2024

CHINA, CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES, AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Payne Institute Fellow Joshua Busby, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Emily Holland write about how the Biden administration announced sweeping 100 percent import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles as well as the batteries and minerals that go in them. While these minerals and refined products are sourced from various countries, China heavily dominates their processing and other stages along various supply chains.  In what way is China’s domination of minerals processing, batteries, and potentially automobiles a threat to U.S. national security?  October 2, 2024. 

Giant sinkholes in a South Dakota neighborhood make families fear for their safety 9/21/2024

Giant sinkholes in a South Dakota neighborhood make families fear for their safety

Payne Institute Fellow Paul Santi contributes to this article about how sinkholes are fairly common, due to collapsed caves, old mines or dissolving material, but the circumstances in South Dakota stand out, said Paul Santi, a professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. The combination of such large sinkholes endangering so many homes makes the Hideaway Hills situation one to remember. September 21, 2024.

Indonesia ‘blood nickel’ risks too grave to ignore 9/21/2024

Indonesia ‘blood nickel’ risks too grave to ignore

Payne Institute Student Researcher Gabriel Collins, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Policy and Outreach Advisor Simon Lomax write about how manufacturers and investors should beware the reputational and operational risks of dealing in Indonesian nickel.  Earlier this month, the US government sounded the alarm over the use of forced labor in the nickel mines of Indonesia, and the major implications for the energy transition.  September 21, 2024.

Community Benefit Agreements are key to mining battery minerals on public lands 9/20/2024

Community Benefit Agreements are key to mining battery minerals on public lands

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Elizabeth Holley writes this article about meeting energy transition goals for decarbonization and how it will require huge increases in the production of battery minerals such as copper, cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium and graphite.  The USA is almost entirely dependent on imports for most of these minerals, and the potential for geopolitical supply chain disruption has led to new federal policies that prioritize domestic mining.  September 20, 2024.

The U.S. Needs to Produce More Minerals at Home. Current Policies Only Take Us Partway. 9/19/2024

The U.S. Needs to Produce More Minerals at Home. Current Policies Only Take Us Partway.

Payne Institute Communications Associate Gregory Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the U.S. government has sought to increase domestic mineral production and processing through supply side policies, however boosting production also requires ramping up demand for domestic minerals. The U.S. government is already taking some valuable steps to support demand, but there is much more it could do.  September 19, 2024.  

Colorado’s quantum hub will revolutionize technology, with Colorado School of Mines helping lead the way 9/16/2024

Colorado’s quantum hub will revolutionize technology, with Colorado School of Mines helping lead the way

Payne Institute Fellow Lincoln Carr contributes to an article about Zhexuan Gong and other Mines researchers on how they turned to a quantum simulator made of a particular experimental device that uses electrodes and lasers to trap charged atoms. By controlling the interactions among the trapped ions, Gong and his collaborators were able to create a brand-new synthetic quantum material—the world’s first 1D magnet, made of just 23 atoms. September 16, 2024.

Senator Hickenlooper announces bipartisan legislation at the Mines Critical Minerals Symposium 9/13/2024

Senator Hickenlooper announces bipartisan legislation at the Mines Critical Minerals Symposium

The Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines hosted Senator John Hickenlooper delivered a keynote address at our Critical Minerals Symposium on September 13.  Hickenlooper proposes national leadership and innovation for clean and responsible critical mineral sourcing. During his speech, Hickenlooper announced a pair of bipartisan bills to guide a national strategy on a clean, responsible and innovative approach to sourcing critical minerals.  September 13, 2024.
Keynote Video

Could Justice40 reproduce injustices in the critical mineral sector? 9/13/2024

Could Justice40 reproduce injustices in the critical mineral sector?

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone and Faculty Fellows, Raphael Deberdt, Nicole M. Smith, and Elizabeth A. Holley write about how the United States is reprioritizing domestic extraction and processing of critical minerals, with billions of dollars of investments. Because of their uses in low-carbon technologies, the mining and processing of these resources falls under the scope of the Justice40 Initiative, the Biden administration’s flagship environmental justice policy that prioritizes green investments to benefit communities deemed disadvantaged, including all recognized Tribes.  September 13, 2024.  

Mines faculty member testifies before congressional critical minerals working group on U.S. mineral workforce 9/13/2024

Mines faculty member testifies before congressional critical minerals working group on U.S. mineral workforce

Payne Institute Fellow Elizabeth Holley testifies before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party’s Critical Minerals Policy Working Group.  The working group, chaired by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), explored the need to develop a skilled domestic workforce to support U.S. economic, energy and national security through the responsible sourcing of critical minerals. September 13, 2024.

Hickenlooper, Tillis to unveil bipartisan minerals bills 9/13/2024

Hickenlooper, Tillis to unveil bipartisan minerals bills

The Payne Institute for Public Policy was pleased to host Senator John Hickenlooper for our Critical Minerals Symposium where he announced his new legislative efforts.  The two bills are intended to stimulate innovation in the U.S. to produce technologies for identifying, mining, processing and recycling minerals.  September 13, 2024.  EVENT VIDEO 

COMPARISON OF CO-LOCATED LASER AND METAL OXIDE CONTINUOUS MONITORING SYSTEMS 9/12/2024

COMPARISON OF CO-LOCATED LASER AND METAL OXIDE CONTINUOUS MONITORING SYSTEMS

Payne Institute Research Scientist Kellis Ward, Student Researcher William Daniels, and Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling write about how accurate measurement of methane (CH4) concentrations on oil and gas sites is essential for accurate estimates of methane emission rates via inversion algorithms. Different types of continuous monitoring sensors are offered as commercial solutions, with varying accuracy. In this paper we compare data from co-located Metal Oxide (MOx) and Laser Spectroscopy (LS) sensors on a midstream oil and gas site, with the goal of quantifying the differences in raw concentration measurements between the two technologies.  September 12, 2024.

America’s mineral blind spot – the trillion-dollar opportunity hiding in plain sight 9/11/2024

America’s mineral blind spot – the trillion-dollar opportunity hiding in plain sight

Payne Institute Student Researcher Gabriel Collins, Faculty Fellow Ian Lange, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how In the sprawling mines of Utah and Arizona, where global giants extract copper and nickel by the ton; germanium, gallium, tellurium—names that don’t make headlines, but underpin the technologies of tomorrow—are discarded as waste or left ignored in tailings ponds. While China tightens its grip on these critical minerals, the US sits idle, stymied not by geology but by corporate calculus.  September 11, 2024.

Trump, Harris back mining, but producers unsatisfied 9/9/2024

Trump, Harris back mining, but producers unsatisfied

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how Democrats and Republicans alike have been expressing support for US metal extraction, allowing domestic miners to bask in a rare moment of bipartisan support, though they say turning that backing into barrier-clearing action remains a tough pull. September 9, 2024.

Colorado School of Mines, Payne Institute for Public Policy announce grant from Quadrature Climate Foundation 9/5/2024

Colorado School of Mines, Payne Institute for Public Policy announce grant from Quadrature Climate Foundation

The Payne Institute for Public Policy and the Mineral and Energy Economics Program at Colorado School of Mines are pleased to announce the award of a three-year grant from Quadrature Climate Foundation in support of critical mineral development in resource communities, with an emphasis on the Global South.  September 5, 2024.

Government stockpiles of metals, materials could aid clean energy transition 9/4/2024

Government stockpiles of metals, materials could aid clean energy transition

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian on a podcast discussing the history and possible future directions of critical minerals stockpiling for energy transitions and national security.  Some experts argue that the NDS, U.S. National Defense Stockpile, could be mobilized against another threat — climate change — by helping to transform the nation’s energy infrastructure.  September 4, 2024.

The US government should build a Resilient Resource Reserve for wartime and peacetime 8/29/2024

The US government should build a Resilient Resource Reserve for wartime and peacetime

Payne Institute Communications Associate Gregory Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how if Congress proceeds—as it should—with creating a Resilient Resource Reserve, it should establish a physical stockpile that can meet the critical mineral demands of the US military in a major conflict, as well as influence domestic mineral prices to incentivize expanded US mineral production.  August 29, 2024.

Forging a Greener Future: The Imperative of Decarbonizing Steel Production 8/26/2024

Forging a Greener Future: The Imperative of Decarbonizing Steel Production

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and PhD candidate at School of Mines Edikan Udofia write about the EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel mill, a longstanding institution in this industrial area for more than a century and how it is evolving as part of the push to decarbonize the global steel industry. Collaborating with Lightsource bp, the mill is shifting to solar energy, positioning itself as the first steel mill in North America to operate predominantly on solar power.  The solar conversion is set to abate almost half a million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. August 26, 2024.

Standardizing “green” extractivism: Chinese & Western environmental, social, and governance instruments in the critical mineral sector 8/24/24

Standardizing “green” extractivism: Chinese & Western environmental, social, and governance instruments in the critical mineral sector

Payne Institute Fellow Raphael Deberdt writes as societies attempt to transition to low-carbon energy and reduce fossil fuel dependencies, mineral extractivism is reaching new heights globally. This trend is accompanied by a surge of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) standards used to justify a perceived just transition. August 24, 2024.

Understanding the Significance of China’s Antimony Export Controls 8/22/2024

Understanding the Significance of China’s Antimony Export Controls

Payne Institute Communications Associate Gregory Wisher and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the Chinese government will probably continue to allow some antimony exports to the United States, sending a retaliatory signal but also keeping the U.S. reliant on Chinese mineral supplies.  August 22, 2024.

Locked up for the long-term: Financial risk mitigation for CCS 8/20/24

Locked up for the long-term: Financial risk mitigation for CCS

Payne Institute Program Director of the Sustainable Finance Lab Brad Handler, and Lindene Patton, Payne researchers Siddhant Kulkarni, and Felix Ayaburi write about how Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is widely considered an important tool in mitigating the global warming effects of excess CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere.  August 20, 2024.

New forms of steel for stronger, lighter cars 8/5/2024

New forms of steel for stronger, lighter cars

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow John Speer contributed to this article about how automakers are tweaking production processes to create a slew of new steels with just the right properties, allowing them to build cars that are both safer and more fuel-efficient.  The new approaches by automakers are yielding ways to tune steel to protect soft human bodies when vehicles crash into each other, as they inevitably do — while curbing car weights to reduce their deleterious impact on the planet.  August 5, 2024.

Geological Storage Risk Mitigation: The Way Forward 7/29/2024

Geological Storage Risk Mitigation: The Way Forward

Payne Institute Program Manager Brad Handler, Lindene E. Patton, and student researcher Siddhant Kulkarni write the fifth and last paper in a series that identified the operational, financial and business model risks through the lifecycle of a geological storage project. These papers then discussed steps that are being taken to mitigate each risk, as well as to ensure that adequate funds are available to pay for closure and for environmental damages should any occur. In addressing these risks, this series averred that the regulatory landscape appears adequate to address them. July 29, 2024.

Long Term Stewardship: Releasing Residual Liability 7/29/2024

Long Term Stewardship: Releasing Residual Liability

Payne Institute Program Director Brad Handler, student researcher Siddhant Kulkarni, and Lindene Patton write the fourth paper in a series of papers on the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation tool envisions the permanent underground storage of CO2. In a carbon geological storage project, the final phase is referred to as Long Term Stewardship (LTS). It follows the Post Injection and Site Care (PISC) phase, i.e., after the injection well has been plugged, the developer has monitored the subsurface for any CO2 leaks for the prescribed period, and the site has been “closed.” July 29, 2024.

Monitoring China’s Mineral Stockpiling and Understanding Its Military Implications 7/26/2024

Monitoring China’s Mineral Stockpiling and Understanding Its Military Implications

Payne Institute Communication Associate Gregory Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian co-author an article about discerning when China is stockpiling – and why – is increasingly challenging given China’s increasing secrecy about mineral-related information. Concerns continue apace about the meaning of China stockpiling minerals. In addition to China’s government statements and military activities, stockpiling minerals is one potential indicator that China may be preparing for a military invasion of Taiwan. July 26, 2024.

Electrifying Off-Road Vehicles: Is 1000 [Wh/kg] Enough? 7/24/2024

Electrifying Off-Road Vehicles: Is 1000 [Wh/kg] Enough?

Mines Aaron Brucker, Adam Duran, Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Neal P. Sullivan and Mines Aashutosh Mistry write about how in the past two decades, we have made strides in decarbonizing light duty vehicles through advances in lithium-ion battery technology. With the battery fundamentals reasonably known for these passenger electric vehicles (EVs), further scientific progress is motivated by the need to electrify other transportation modes.  July 24, 2024. 

Harris expected to campaign on Biden administration’s energy, climate record 7/22/2024

Harris expected to campaign on Biden administration’s energy, climate record

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how Vice President Kamala Harris will inherit the Biden administration’s record on energy and climate policy as she looks to secure the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and deny former US President Donald Trump a second term in November.  July 22, 2024.

Financial Risk Management for Geological Storage 7/22/24

Financial Risk Management for Geological Storage

Payne Institute Program Manager Brad Handler, Lindene E. Patton, student researchers Siddhant Kulkarni and Felix Ayaburi, and Darshil Shah write the third paper in a series of papers on the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation tool envisions the permanent underground storage of CO2.  The U.S. government has implemented several policies designed to position Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects for growth. These include a regulatory framework and financial incentives such as Internal Revenue Service Section 45Q tax credits and grants.  July 22,2024.

A Systems Engineering Approach to Decarbonizing Mining: Analyzing Electrification and CO2 Emission Reduction Scenarios for Copper Mining Haulage Systems 7/21/2024

A Systems Engineering Approach to Decarbonizing Mining: Analyzing Electrification and CO2 Emission Reduction Scenarios for Copper Mining Haulage Systems

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dr. H. Sebnem Düzgün, student researcher Kemalcan Aydogdu, Evren Deniz Yaylaci, and Fatih Aranoglu write that due to climate change risks, the public, regulators, and investors require solid actions to minimize the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of mineral extraction and metals production. The mining sector considers alternatives to reduce its carbon footprint by transforming the business and adopting new technologies into operations.  July 21, 2024.

RADIOACTIVE 7/17/2024

Radioactive

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about how Energy Fuels Inc., a Denver company, is seeking to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon — and an Indigenous tribe’s long fight to stop it.  Prices for uranium rose enough for the company to seek to bring uranium ore to White Mesa from one of the company’s mothballed uranium mine sites.  July 17, 2024.

BP Releases Energy Outlook 2024 7/17/2024

BP Releases Energy Outlook 2024

Our Payne Institute Earth Observation Group provided bp with historical data for natural gas flaring taken from their VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) product.  The Energy Outlook report explores the speed and shape of the energy transition out to 2050 and to help shape a resilient strategy for bp, using two scenarios, Current Trajectory and Net Zero.  The two scenarios are informed by recent trends and developments in the global energy system. In emerging trends, they discuss these recent developments across areas including energy security, energy demand, carbon emissions and investment.  July 17, 2024.

Preliminary Evaluation of Community-Oriented Risk Analysis of Carbon Capture, Transport, and Storage in the United States 7/15/24

Preliminary Evaluation of Community-Oriented Risk Analysis of Carbon Capture, Transport, and Storage in the United States

Mines Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD student researcher Nicolas G. Perticari Pesci writes the second in a series of papers on the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS projects are slated to be multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects comprised of carbon dioxide pipelines, capture sites, and injection wells for the sub-surface.  While the technical feasibility of carbon capture projects is explained systematically, for example as part of the permitting application for Class VI wells for geological storage, the social implications of projects are equally important and must also be evaluated to better understand risks and holistic mitigation of liability for all involved parties.  July 15, 2024.

Assessment of Peer-to-Peer Trading Benefits 7/10/2024

Assessment of Peer-to-Peer Trading Benefits

Emon Chatterji and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how a Peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading model can enable customers to support each other with potentially significant economic benefits, yields technical benefits to reduce losses/congestion, and presents a greater opportunity to maximize variable renewable development. This study uses a two-stage optimization model to generate supply curves for individual customers, followed by an optimization by the P2P operator to maximize the savings. July 10, 2024.

Why steel prices have been sagging all year 7/9/2024

Why steel prices have been sagging all year

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange is featured on this podcast about how there are two reasons steel prices have dropped? Slowed construction spending and flat-ish manufacturing activity.  In China, because their economy is faltering so significantly, yet they’re still producing a lot of steel, they’re exporting their steel market weakness to the rest of the world, and it could be a while before the market picks up.  July 9, 2024.

Mineral Supply Chains and Space Assets 7/9/2024

Mineral Supply Chains and Space Assets

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer, Gregory Autry, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how both the United States and China seek to build and deploy significant numbers of space assets, most of which are mineral intensive.  The mineral compositions of three important space assets—satellites, direct-ascent antisatellite weapons, and rocket bodies—require the United States to import minerals, particularly from China, for their construction.  Consequently, the US space industry, and thus the US government, faces the associated risks of supply chain disruptions that can restrict mineral availability and cause price volatility, negatively impacting space asset production. This article proposes three policies to mitigate such risks to the mineral supply chains. July 9, 2024.  

GEOLOGICAL STORAGE: RISKS AND OPERATIONAL RISK MITIGATION 7/8/2024

GEOLOGICAL STORAGE: RISKS AND OPERATIONAL RISK MITIGATION

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, Payne Institute CCS Program Manager Anna Littlefield, and student researcher Felix Ayaburi write the first in a series of papers on the use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation tool envisions the permanent underground storage of CO2. The prospects for large scale adoption of geological storage has raised concerns regarding the risks — of property damage, environmental degradation, and to human health— if stored CO2 were to leak to the surface or into shallow water resources.  July 8, 2024.

INTRODUCTION: RISK MITIGATION IN GEOLOGICAL STORAGE OF CO2 7/8/2024

INTRODUCTION: RISK MITIGATION IN GEOLOGICAL STORAGE OF CO2

The Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab writes the introduction to a series of papers that looks at Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).  CCS is an integral activity in the effort to limit global warming and its harmful effects.  That contribution requires a significant scaling of CCS operations, and initiatives for new CCS projects are indeed proliferating.  July 8, 2024.

A tell-tale sign that China could be preparing for war 7/4/24

A Tell-tale Sign that China Could Be Preparing For War

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer’s ‘Statement for the Record’ was highlighted in an article discussing how a telling similarity has been noticed between what Germany was doing before it invaded Poland in September 1939 and what China is doing now – stockpiling resources and raw materials. July 4, 2024.

Mines-developed molecule improves performance of perovskite solar cells 7/1/2024

Mines-developed molecule improves performance of perovskite solar cells

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Alan Sellinger is featured in this article about how a new molecule, called EtCz3EPA, was designed, and synthesized by his research group.  The molecule, which forms stronger bonds within the solar cells, enhancing the connection between different parts of the cells. In doing so, the molecule increases the cell’s stability and efficiency – even when exposed to UV radiation and tested outdoors.  July 1, 2024.

Why Is China Stockpiling Key Resources? 6/28/24

Why Is China Stockpiling Key Resources?

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer is highlighted in an article about a question that prompted a hearing this month by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a government-funded organization that follows the relationship between the United States and China.  Is China preparing to invade Taiwan, or just flexing its muscles to attract attention? “The Chinese central government stockpiling minerals is one potential indicator that it may be preparing to invade Taiwan,”  ​Gregory Wischer of Dei Gratia Minerals told the Commission in a prepared statement. June 28, 2024.

US Stockpiles of the Rare Earth Minerals 6/27/2024

US Stockpiles of the Rare Earth Minerals

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer contributes to an article about how he suspects national stockpile levels are well below where they should be given the available information.  Rare earth minerals are needed to make all sorts of things, from F-35 stealth fighters and night-vision goggles to internet fiber-optic cables and MRI machines and suspects national stockpile levels are well below where they should be given the available information. June 27, 2024.

Will Congo move up the battery supply chain? 6/26/2024

Will Congo move up the battery supply chain? Strategic capitalism, friendshoring, and localized manufacturing in the time of the green transition

Payne Institute Fellow Raphael Deberdt writes about how in recent years, countries where extraction of so-called green minerals occur have increasingly asserted themselves. Negatively dubbed as resources nationalism, these political decisions are more akin to a willingness to increase in-country value added for regions often suffering from centuries of colonial extractivism. In the battery sector, these strategies led to cobalt, lithium, and nickel producers aiming to develop local manufacturing of battery components. June 26, 2024.

Statistical Review of World Energy 6/26/2024

Statistical Review of World Energy

The Payne Institute Earth Observation Group provided the data for global gas flaring based on our satellite data algorithms for the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy.  The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year. Previously produced by bp, the Review has been providing timely, comprehensive and objective data to the energy community since 1952.  June 26, 2024.

Comparable to Germany before World War II? China’s strategic metal reserves have attracted attention, especially copper and cobalt 6/20/2024

Comparable to Germany before World War II? China’s strategic metal reserves have attracted attention, especially copper and cobalt

Payne Institute Communications Associate Greg Wischer contributes to this article about how China’s control and reserves of key mineral resources such as rare earths, lithium, copper (Copper) and cobalt (Cobalt) have increasingly attracted the attention of the United States and the West. In addition to worries about being too dependent on China for key minerals, China’s control and reserves of key minerals also make the United States and the West worried that China is preparing for a potential war.  June 20, 2024.

Fostering Effective Energy Transition Report 2024 6/19/2024

Fostering Effective Energy Transition Report

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Advisory Board Member David Victor contribute to the report which looks at the Energy Transition Index (ETI), which benchmarks 120 countries on their current energy system performance and on the readiness of their enabling environment, finds that while there has been notable progress in energy efficiency and a marked increase in the adoption of clean energy sources, energy transition momentum has been held back by setbacks in energy equity, driven by rising energy prices in recent years. Energy security also continues to be tested by geopolitical risks.  June 19, 2024.

A new report says worldwide oil demand will peak in 2029. Some oil industry observers are skeptical. 6/13/2024

A new report says worldwide oil demand will peak in 2029. Some oil industry observers are skeptical.

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian is featured on this podcast discussing recent IEA and OPEC analysis on global oil markets and trends.  A new report from the International Energy Agency indicates that global oil demand will peak before the end of the decade.  However, OPEC, by contrast, predicts the peak won’t come until 2045.  So which one’s estimate is more likely to be right?  June 13, 2024.

Hearing on “China’s Stockpiling and Mobilization Measures for Competition and Conflict” 6/13/2024

Hearing on “China’s Stockpiling and Mobilization Measures for Competition and Conflict”

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer writes a Statement for the Record submitted to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission about why the Chinese central government stockpiling minerals is one potential indicator that they may be preparing to invade Taiwan. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration oversees China’s stockpile, which reportedly contains large volumes of minerals like aluminum, cobalt, and copper. June 13, 2024.

CRITICAL MINERAL FUTURES MARKETS: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION 6/9/2024

CRITICAL MINERAL FUTURES MARKETS: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Payne Institute Student Researcher Gabe Collins wrote this article about how the rise in demand for critical minerals begs the question of how to develop effective market-based pricing signals that encourage new supplies. Futures markets for many critical minerals are non-existent; those that do exist like lithium and cobalt, however, remain relatively small and less liquid in the U.S. compared to other commodity markets.  Efficient pricing mechanisms support long-run decisions in allocating capital through price discovery and transparency.  June 9, 2024.

A Critical Mineral Trade War Is Brewing 6/4/2024

A Critical Mineral Trade War Is Brewing

Payne Institute Communications Associate Gregory Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how China and the United States have fired their opening salvos in a critical minerals trade war.  In all likelihood, this critical mineral trade war will intensify, with corresponding implications for U.S. industries that use these raw materials.  June 4, 2024.

Mines, Development Partner Institute announce partnership 5/31/2024

Mines, Development Partner Institute announce partnership

Mines Global Energy Future Initiative Vice President John Bradford announced a partnership with Development Partner Institute (DPI) that will open the door to collaboration between industry authorities and the next generation of experts.  Both parties will be able to take significant learnings from one another to work towards our shared interest in making positive change and creating a prosperous future.  May 31, 2024.

The West needs to produce more critical minerals. Here’s how the Pentagon should help 5/30/2024

The West needs to produce more critical minerals. Here’s how the Pentagon should help

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Communications Associate Greg Wischer write about how Western governments are seeking to build more mines and refineries for critical minerals, given their necessity in not only clean energy technologies like electric vehicle batteries but also defense applications like hypersonic glide vehicles.  But beyond capital challenges (and local opposition), the West’s paucity of mines and refineries faces structural realities: geology and technology.   May 30, 2024.

Mining Is Mired in Regulatory Delays. That’s Now a Climate Problem. 5/30/2024

Mining Is Mired in Regulatory Delays. That’s Now a Climate Problem.

Payne Institute Policy and Outreach Advisor Simon Lomax, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Director Morgan Bazilian write an commentary looking at how Washington, D.C. continues to wrestle with the subject of NEPA reform, there are some pragmatic steps the federal government can take to accelerate the production of critical and strategic minerals in the United States. They examine how to make progress quickly as the wider NEPA reform debate plays out.  May 30, 2024.

More Reporting Clarity Can Help Fund U.S. Lithium Growth 5/29/2024

More Reporting Clarity Can Help Fund U.S. Lithium Growth

Colorado School of Mines’ Mineral & Energy Economics Master candidate Reese Epper, SFL Program Manager Brad Handler and Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange discuss the role of recent SEC reporting changes in fostering more investment in Lithium extraction, including using Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) techniques.   May 29, 2024.

Mines researchers on two finalist teams for $310M NASA Earth System Explorer mission 5/23/2024

Mines researchers on two finalist teams for $310M NASA Earth System Explorer mission

Geophysics’ Bia Villas Bôas and Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Matthew Siegfried are members of two proposed missions to improve understanding of key Earth science focus areas for two of the four missions recently selected by NASA to move forward in the Earth System Explorer Program competition.  The competition – which will ultimately select two proposals to launch in 2030 and 2032 with a budget of $310 million per mission – aims to improve understanding of key Earth science focus areas for the benefit of all, including greenhouse gasses, the ozone layer, ocean surface currents and winds, and changes in forest structure, glaciers, and ice sheets around the world.  May 23, 2024.

Biden’s Green Agenda Could Be In Trouble As China Moves At Breakneck Speed To Corner Key Resources 5/21/2024

Biden’s Green Agenda Could Be In Trouble As China Moves At Breakneck Speed To Corner Key Resources

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how President Joe Biden’s climate agenda could be in trouble as China continues to rapidly expand its control over the production of valuable minerals essential to green technology like electric vehicles.  China is growing its operations in the harvesting and production of nickel, lithium and cobalt as the U.S. and its allies suspend business at a number of plants in response to a glut in global supply.  May 21, 2024.

China Is Winning the Minerals War 5/21/2024

China Is Winning the Minerals War

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how western efforts to make a dent are languishing; ‘China is not just standing still waiting for us to catch up.’  Chinese mineral companies are expanding operations, supercharging supply and causing prices to drop. Their challengers can’t compete.  May 21, 2024.

Bending Bureaucracy Towards Tribal Sovereignty 5/20/2024

Bending Bureaucracy Towards Tribal Sovereignty

W. Gregory Guedel, Payne Institute NAMES Program Manager Rick Tallman, Fellow Richard Luarkie, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how sovereign Native American Tribes and their communities can play a pivotal and positive role in the future of America’s twin pursuits of energy security and effectively addressing climate change. Native American lands are extraordinarily rich with energy resources.  Still, significant Tribal energy development efforts remain stymied.  While positive efforts are emerging across the government from the Department of Energy to Department of Interior, there is a need to reform administrative processes, and ensure some level of stability in investing and supporting Indian Country.   May 20, 2024.

Colorado’s leadership on methane emissions survives another challenge

Colorado’s leadership on methane emissions survives another challenge

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Policy and Outreach Advisor Simon Lomax write this opinion piece about how Colorado is both a national and global leader on many areas of energy and climate policy, and especially when it comes to the regulation of emissions from oil and natural gas production. A decade ago, Colorado became the first state to directly regulate methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities.  The lessons learned have influenced not only the US EPA, but other efforts globally.  May 16, 2024.

US Lawmakers Left the LNG Pause in Place, So What Next? 5/15/2024

US Lawmakers Left the LNG Pause in Place, So What Next?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Policy and Outreach Advisor, Responsible Gas Simon Lomax, and Deputy Director Greg Clough write about how US lawmakers did not force President Joe Biden to lift his pause on LNG export approvals in exchange for the recent approval of a $95 billion security aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. This likely means the US Department of Energy (DOE) can complete a review of the economic and climate impacts of LNG exports, which was the stated purpose of the pause.  May 15, 2024.

LEEDING POWER BACK TO COMMUNITIES THROUGH GREEN BUILDING CODES 5/10/2024

LEEDING POWER BACK TO COMMUNITIES THROUGH GREEN BUILDING CODES – ADVICE FOR POLICYMAKERS CONSIDERING LEED CERTIFICATION

Payne Institute Student Researcher Nathan Li compares goals of original, local green building codes and their potential for projects to use LEED certification as a path of compliance. By using his professional experience in LEED certification to analyze these codes’ language and priorities, he provide guidance on the applicability of LEED to achieve energy efficiency and renewable energy goals set by jurisdictions.  Nathan then makes suggestions to policymakers not to rely on the widespread acceptance of LEED to communicate a sustainability commitment, but instead use locally specific codes that require needed changes in their communities.  May 10, 2024.

Mines PFAS expert weighs in on regulating “forever chemicals” 5/9/2024

Mines PFAS expert weighs in on regulating “forever chemicals”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins, University Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado School of Mines, is among an international group of environmental consultants, regulators, land managers and academics that have jointly published an evaluation of differing approaches to regulation of the substances popularly known as ‘forever chemicals.’  May 9, 2024.

In the Race for Space Metals, Companies Hope to Cash In 5/8/2024

In the Race for Space Metals, Companies Hope to Cash In

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Angel Abbud-Madrid contributes to this article about how mining asteroids could, in theory, reduce the burden on Earth’s resources.  Potential applications of space-mined material abound: Asteroids contain metals like platinum and cobalt, which are used in electronics and electric vehicle batteries, respectively. Although there’s plenty of these materials on Earth, they can be more concentrated on asteroids than mountainsides, making them easier to scrape out.   May 8, 2024.

Diagnosing the PFAS Problem 5/8/2024

Diagnosing the PFAS Problem

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how scientists Investigate So-Called ‘Forever Chemicals’ in the Chesapeake Bay.  Throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, researchers are trying to piece together the fate and transport of PFAS. But PFAS behave differently than many legacy toxic chemicals like mercury and PCBs, and they are driving researchers to think about toxic contaminants in new ways.  May 8, 2024.

Is Green Growth Possible? 4/30/2024

Is Green Growth Possible? 

Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie is featured on the Ezra Klein Show, a New York Times podcast, discussing how climate technology is increasingly catching up to the world’s enormous need for clean energy and with a few changes, a more sustainable future.  The Payne Institute is mentioned as a key research organization looking at the amount of resources available to support a clean energy transition using solid data science.  April 29, 2024.  

Getting De-risking “Just Right” on Critical Minerals and Battery Supply Chains 4/29/24

Getting De-Risking ‘Just Right’ on Critical Minerals and Battery Supply Chains

Payne Institute Fellow, Joshua Busby, writes about how China has come to dominate both the critical minerals space and wider supply chains for the clean energy transition including batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels. With rising geopolitical tension between the two countries, U.S. policymakers have described these not only as risks to the U.S. economy and manufacturing but also as threats to U.S. national security. April 29, 2024.

Revitalizing the future economy: Critical mineral derivatives could bring stability 4/29/2024

Revitalizing the future economy: Critical mineral derivatives could bring stability

Payne Institute Student Researcher Reese Epper, Sustainable Finance Laboratory Program Manager Brad Handler, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how despite very likely high demand growth for some minerals, recent price drops give poor signals to investors.  Slower-than-expected growth in the electric vehicle sector, especially in China, combined with supply increases, has weighed heavily on the prices of several critical minerals. Given the long lead times to develop new supply sources, investments in mining these minerals must begin now. Yet, in the face of low prices, the mining industry is delaying projects, scaling back work and suspending operations.  April 29, 2024.  

How Demand-Side Policies in Keystone Industries Can Help Revive the US Mineral Industry: A Case Study of the US Automotive Industry 4/28/24

How Demand-Side Policies in Keystone Industries Can Help Revive the US Mineral Industry: A Case Study of the US Automotive Industry

Payne Institute Fellow, Gregory Wischer, writes about how critical minerals are necessary in applications across core industries, from the defense industrial base to the automotive industry. Nickel, for example, is used in the steel pressure hulls of attack submarines and the lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles. Recognizing the importance of critical minerals to its national security and economic prosperity, the US government has mainly sought to increase US mineral production through supply-side policies like grants and loans for US mineral projects. April 28, 2024.

Colorado School of Mines awarded $10.5M in fuel cell funding 4/26/2024

Colorado School of Mines awarded $10.5M in fuel cell funding

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Robert Braun is featured in this article about how his research team received three federal awards boost funding for fuel cell and hydrogen technologies research.  The team is approaching this challenge from a multidisciplinary lens, with researchers bringing experience across cutting-edge fuel-cell research capabilities including new materials development, high-temperature electrochemistry, device design and characterization, ammonia chemistry, and systems integration.  April 24, 2024.

Greenhouse Gases Life Cycle Assessment for Natural Gas and Liquefied Natural Gas 4/23/2024

Greenhouse Gases Life Cycle Assessment for Natural Gas and Liquefied Natural Gas

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this report from the National Petroleum Institute on titled Reducing GHG Emissions from the U.S. Natural Gas Supply Chain.  His contributions were made to Chapter 4 – Greenhouse Gases Life Cycle Assessment for Natural Gas and Liquefied Natural Gas.  The chapter introduces the fundamental concepts of LCA, discusses modeling GHG emissions from U.S. natural gas and LNG supply chains, quantifies life cycle GHG emissions, and explores application of LCAs in public and corporate policies.   April 23, 2024.

Drinking water for 268,000 Coloradans exceeds new limits on “forever chemicals” 4/21/2024

Drinking water for 268,000 Coloradans exceeds new limits on “forever chemicals”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how the utilities that provide drinking water to nearly 268,000 Coloradans will need tens of millions of dollars over the next five years to comply with new federal limits on harmful “forever chemicals,” but finding the money will be a challenge — especially for small, rural systems. April 21, 2024.

Jennifer Miskimins nominated as 2026 president of Society of Petroleum Engineers 4/17/2024

Jennifer Miskimins nominated as 2026 president of Society of Petroleum Engineers

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jennifer Miskimins, professor and head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at Colorado School of Mines, has been nominated to serve as the 2026 president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the premier global organization for oil and gas professionals.  Dr. Miskimins is a Mines alum, Miskimins has 30 years of industry experience and has led Petroleum Engineering Department since 2020.  April 17, 2024.  

Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules Must Sync With Biden’s Climate Agenda 4/10/2024

Hydrogen Tax Credit Rules Must Sync With Biden’s Climate Agenda

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Responsible Gas Program Advisor Simon Lomax write about how President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda is more aggressive than anything previously in US energy and environmental policy.  But involving many federal departments and agencies in administering these initiatives introduces risks that must be managed, such as the danger of disorganization and conflicting policies from different parts of the US government that will make reducing carbon emissions slower and more expensive.  April 10, 2024.

The United States’ Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Supplies: Can It Meet the Needs of the IRA? 4/9/2024

The United States’ Strategy for Securing Critical Minerals Supplies: Can It Meet the Needs of the IRA?

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Raphael Deberdt published this policy brief about how the United States reliance on foreign supplies of raw and processed critical minerals is pressing Washington to devise a strategy to secure short-, medium- and long-term solutions. Pressure only increased with the booming demand spurred partly by the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) policies. April 9, 2024.

Making Sense of the U.S. LNG Pause: Five Key Data Points 4/9/2024

Making Sense of the U.S. LNG Pause: Five Key Data Points

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director Greg Clough, and Responsible Gas Program Advisor Simon Lomax write about how the Biden administration’s pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals will be over in a matter of months.  They provide five data points offer some critical clues.  April 9, 2024.

The price of copper has been rising. That’s good news for the economy. 4/9/2024

The price of copper has been rising. That’s good news for the economy.

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange is featured on this podcast about the rising cost of copper. We say pretty regularly that if you want to figure out which way the global economy is headed, you should take a look at the price of copper. Because copper is used in so many things — power lines, appliances, vehicles, wind turbines, EV batteries. You get the picture. There is so much demand for the metal right now, the price of copper futures is at its highest since the middle of 2022. April 9, 2024.

Colorado School of Mines, Chevron announce partnership for Global Energy Future Initiative 4/8/2024

Colorado School of Mines, Chevron announce partnership for Global Energy Future Initiative

Through this partnership, Chevron will sponsor research projects and participate in steering committees and working groups, adding industry expertise to solve complex problems related to the energy transition. Chevron has been one of Mines’ strongest industry research partners for many decades and this new relationship will only strengthen that partnership. Chevron and GEFI aim to develop sustainable, secure, resilient, and adaptive energy systems and infrastructure, fostering worldwide economic development while reducing environmental impacts. April 8, 2024.

Boom goes uranium in Utah — again 4/7/2024

Boom goes uranium in Utah — again

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about the latest concerns of the La Sal Complex, a Uranium mine 32 miles southeast of Moab.  The mine has been opened and closed and opened again over the years. The price of uranium has increased recently, and so has uranium production in Utah. The mining and processing of uranium have ignited old concerns.  April 7, 2024.

Greening the black gold? How private carbon finance can tackle oil & gas 4/5/2024

Greening the black gold? How private carbon finance can tackle oil & gas

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how a set of entrepreneurs in the U.S. are considering how carbon finance and the Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) can be harnessed in new ways to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Their target: oil and natural gas wells. These entrepreneurs are looking across the “lifecycle” of a well or a whole oilfield and, in the process, targeting different GHGs. April 5, 2024.

US ratification of the ocean treaty will unlock deep sea mining 4/2/2024

US ratification of the ocean treaty will unlock deep sea mining

Payne Institute Fellow Alex Gilbert and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how hundreds of former political and military leaders are calling for the US Senate to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the impetus being to open up deep sea mining to supply critical minerals needed for clean energy and military technologies. Deep seabed resources include highly valued minerals such as cobalt, nickel, and rare earths.   April 2, 2024.  

Panel of lawmakers considers whether carbon capture holds future in Colorado 4/1/2024

Panel of lawmakers considers whether carbon capture holds future in Colorado

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield contributed to this article about how as Colorado aims to achieve 100% net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, leaders of key state agencies argue that they can’t meet that goal without employing carbon-capture-and-sequestration techniques in hard-to-decarbonize sectors.  Ensuring the state has tools to allow and regulate such operations as fossil-fuel usage continues for the foreseeable future is a “strategic step to expediting the process.”  April 1, 2024.

Hydropower production took a hit in 2023 3/28/2024

Hydropower production took a hit in 2023

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Adrienne Marshall is on this podcast discussing how U.S. hydropower production was down 11% from the year before and dipped to a 22-year low last year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. To make up for the hydro deficit, the U.S. bought natural gas power, which emits more carbon than hydro does, as well as some solar energy.  March 28, 2024.

New Method for Tracking Down Methane Emissions on Oil and Gas Sites 3/27/2024

New Method for Tracking Down Methane Emissions on Oil and Gas Sites

Payne Institute Student Researcher William Daniels, Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how reducing methane emissions is a key component of short-term climate action.  Empirical data and transparent models are key pillars of emission reduction efforts.  Payne Institute researchers William Daniels, Meng Jia, and Dorit Hammerling have developed a completely open-source analytical framework for detecting single-source methane emissions, determining the source location, and estimating an emission rate using data from continuous monitoring systems (CMS).  March 27, 2024.

Energy Dept. Awards $6 Billion for Green Steel, Cement and Even Macaroni Factories 3/25/2024

Energy Dept. Awards $6 Billion for Green Steel, Cement and Even Macaroni Factories

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how industries produce 25 percent of America’s planet-warming emissions but so far have proved very hard to clean up. The Biden administration is trying by with plans to spend up to $6 billion on new technologies to cut carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industries like steel, cement, chemicals and aluminum, which are all enormous contributors to global warming but which have so far been incredibly difficult to clean up.  March 25, 2024.

Energy, material, and resource efficiency for industrial decarbonization: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options 3/25/2024

Energy, material, and resource efficiency for industrial decarbonization: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options

Jinsoo Kim, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Fellow Steve Griffiths, and Minyoung Yang write about how efficiency stands out as one of the most important options for achieving industrial decarbonization. In addition to carbon emissions reductions, improving energy, material and resource efficiency can bring many desirable benefits, such as cost savings, increased energy and resource security, and higher productivity. We conducted a comprehensive and systematic review through a socio-technical lens of more than 2.8 million references and 380 selected studies on industrial decarbonization.  March 25, 2024.

Exploring policy choices for addressing forever chemicals 3/25/2024

Exploring policy choices for addressing forever chemicals

Payne Institute Communications Associate Kristin Ziv, Student Researcher Isabel Guajardo Retamales and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how on March 20, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) convened a pivotal hearing titled “Examining PFAS as Hazardous Substances.  The session focused on the risks associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of synthetic chemicals found in various industrial and consumer products. March 25, 2024.

Stephanie Kwon wins NSF CAREER Award for research to design new catalytic materials 3/21/2024

Stephanie Kwon wins NSF CAREER Award for research to design new catalytic materials 

Carbon-carbon (C-C) coupling reactions can be used to enhance the fuel properties of biofuels in sustainable energy applications.

Stephanie Kwon, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Colorado School of Mines, has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her work to design catalytic materials for carbon-carbon (C-C) coupling reactions. March 21, 2024.

Review of Policy Research Special Issue March 2024 3/21/2024

Review of Policy Research Special Issue March 2024

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dr. Kathleen J. Hancock is the editor of this March 2024 edition of the RDR Special Issue on Energy Regionalism. The Special Issue’s focus on energy regionalism stems from increasing academic interest in how geographic regions compare with each other and across issues areas as well as growing interest in a wide range of energy issues, often seen through lenses other than the traditional security one and including non-state actors. Understanding how regionalisms—players, processes, institutions, and organizations—intersect with energy is directly linked to domestic and international energy policies and outcomes. The contributions cover sub-Saharan Africa, the East Mediterranean, Central America, Russia, Europe, and North America.  March 21,2024.

Detection, localization, and quantification of single-source methane emissions on oil and gas production sites using point-in-space continuous monitoring systems 3/20/2024

Detection, localization, and quantification of single-source methane emissions on oil and gas production sites using point-in-space continuous monitoring systems

Payne Institute Student Researchers William S. Daniels and Meng Jia, and Faculty Fellow Dorit M. Hammerling write about how they propose a modular framework for methane emission detection, localization, and quantification on oil and gas production sites that uses concentration and wind data from point-in-space continuous monitoring systems. The framework leverages a gradient-based spike detection algorithm to estimate emission start and end times (event detection) and pattern matches simulated and observed concentrations to estimate emission source location (localization) and rate (quantification). March 20, 2024.

Nuclear Power is Tribal Power 3/19/2024

Nuclear Power is Tribal Power

Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) Initiative Program Manager Rick Tallman, Fellow Richard Luarkie and Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about how with the newly found bipartisan political will for American nuclear power, the U.S. is poised for a uranium mining boom once again. As the inevitable debate ensues, what is often not appreciated is the essential need to gain support from our Native American communities from the very start and through the developments.  March 19, 2024.

Projecting demand for mineral-based critical materials in the energy transition for electricity 3/18/2024

Projecting demand for mineral-based critical materials in the energy transition for electricity

Payne Institute Student Researcher Gabriel Collins, Faculty Fellow Carol A. Dahl, Student Researcher Maxwell Fleming, Student Researcher Michael Tanner, Student Researcher Wilson C. Martin, Kabir Nadkarni, Fellow Sara Hastings-Simon and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how mapping the changing energy landscape toward net zero and understanding the critical material needs to support the transition are essential for demanders and suppliers as well as policy makers seeking to orchestrate the transition. They provide such decision makers for electricity markets with a transparent tool that can be easily understood and modified as our transitional knowledge improves.  March 18, 2024.

The Rise of Great Mineral Powers 3/12/2024

The Rise of Great Mineral Powers

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Communications Associate Gregory Wischer write about how minerals play a crucial role in bolstering a state’s military capabilities, defining its “mineral power.” This study assesses a state’s mineral power by evaluating its access to secure mineral supplies from four key sources: domestic production, government stockpiles, overseas production by domestic companies, and imports from aligned states. March 12, 2024.

The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry 3/12/2024

The path to net-zero emissions runs through industry

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths and Benjamin K. Sovacool write about the recent COP28 United Nations climate conference and how leaders faced a monumental task: tackling the decarbonization of the industrial sector, responsible for over 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve emission reduction targets, urgent action is needed to curb emissions from carbon-intensive industries such as steel, cement, and chemicals. March 12, 2024.

Changing the relationship between mining and Native American Tribes 3/11/2024

Changing the relationship between mining and Native American Tribes

Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) Initiative Program Manager Rick Tallman, Director Morgan Bazilian and Daniel Cardenas write about how the Native American Tribes stand to benefit greatly from mining and processing the critical minerals needed to drive the energy transition in the United States — but only if we acknowledge the sordid history of mining on tribal lands and properly remediate legacy issues while forging a new approach that is transparent, fair and centered on Tribal sovereignty. March 11, 2024.

Michael McGuirk Wins Negative Emissions Scialog Award 3/7/2024

Michael McGuirk Wins Negative Emissions Scialog Award

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Mike McGuirk has won a $50,000 award from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement’s (RSCA) Negative Emissions Science Scialog program to conduct research exploring opportunities to replace petroleum in this process with polyolefin waste, the largest type of post-consumer plastic.  March 7, 2024.

Mines’ Potential Gas Agency provides guidance for assessment of natural gas supply and demand 3/6/2024

Mines’ Potential Gas Agency provides guidance for assessment of natural gas supply and demand

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Stephen Sonnenberg led the most recent biennial assessment of the United States’ estimated natural gas resource base for the Potential Gas Committee.  The assessment reports the nation’s natural gas recoverable supply, which ensures we have the knowledge to make well-informed decisions about current natural gas usage and how it fits into the nation’s future energy strategy. March 6, 2024.

Navigating Energy’s New Frontiers: The IEA at 50 3/6/2024

Navigating Energy’s New Frontiers: The IEA at 50

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Thijs Van de Graaf write about the International Energy Agency (IEA) marking its 50-year anniversary. From its origins as a relatively unknown analytical body primarily focused on oil security for a select group of OECD members, it has evolved significantly. March 6, 2024.

Biden Cracks Down on Chinese Electric Vehicles 3/1/2024

Biden Cracks Down on Chinese Electric Vehicles

Morgan Bazilian, the Payne Institute Director, contributes to this article about how the Biden administration on Thursday ordered the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate the potential national security threats posed by Chinese-made “connected vehicles,” marking Washington’s latest push to de-risk ties from Beijing and tighten the screws on China’s tech industry. March 1, 2024.

STEEL RISING: HARNESSING NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY 2/29/24

STEEL RISING: HARNESSING NIGERIA’S POTENTIAL FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY

Payne Institute student researcher Edikan Udofia writes about Nigeria is endowed with more than 2 billion metric tons of iron ore reserves and is striving to position itself as a key player in the worldwide steel sector. Despite encountering challenges in the past regarding enhancing its steel manufacturing capabilities, Nigeria is currently well-placed to harness its abundant mineral wealth and enhance its steel production capacity. February 29, 2024. 

VIIRS SENSORS SHOW BREADTH OF TEXAS WILDFIRES 2/29/2024

VIIRS SENSORS SHOW BREADTH OF TEXAS WILDFIRES

Payne Institute Research Associate Mikhail Zhizhin, Senior Research Associate Christopher Elvidge, Communications Associate Kristin Ziv, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how using the VIIRS Nightfire satellites, the Earth Observation Group at the Payne Institute for Public Policy has calculated the temperatures and spatial extent of active burning in the Texas Panhandle with their Nightfire algorithm applied to data collected by NOAA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer Suite (VIIRS). February 29, 2024.

USGS, Colorado School of Mines establish joint industry program to explore potential of geologic hydrogen 2/26/2024

USGS, Colorado School of Mines establish joint industry program to explore potential of geologic hydrogen

8 companies have already signed on, including major players in mining and energy industries, geologic hydrogen start-ups.

Colorado School of Mines (Mines) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have established a joint industry program supported by leading international companies in the energy industry to study the potential of a low-carbon alternative energy source: geologic hydrogen. February 26, 2024.

LNG exports, pauses, climate impacts: Are we having the wrong debate? 2/26/2024

LNG exports, pauses, climate impacts: Are we having the wrong debate?

Payne Institute Fellow Arvind Ravikumar shares his perspective on the way we should be thinking about the future of US LNG exports.  The US Department of Energy in late January hit “pause” on its work issuing key LNG export permits. About 30 million mt/year of probable export capacity additions in the US and Mexico are at risk because of the permitting hold. February 26, 2024.

The Next Big Thing in Energy: Two Mines faculty members working on Energy Earthshots 2/20/2024

The Next Big Thing in Energy: Two Mines faculty members working on Energy Earthshots

Professors Katie Johnson and Alexis Navarre-Sitchler contributing to U.S. Department of Energy program focused on clean energy transition.

The U.S. Department of Energy has set some ambitious goals: reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 52 percent by the end of the decade, secure a 100 percent clean electrical grid by 2035 and reach a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. February 20, 2024.

EOG’S VIIRS SATELLITES CONFIRM DRONE ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN OIL INFRASTRUCTURE 2/16/2024

EOG’S VIIRS SATELLITES CONFIRM DRONE ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN OIL INFRASTRUCTURE

Payne Institute Research Associate Mikhail Zhizhin, Communications Associate Kristin Ziv, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how using the VIIRS Nightfire satellites, the Earth Observation Group at the Payne Institute for Public Policy was able to confirm several of the recent Ukrainian drone attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in Russia that have occurred over the past several weeks.  February 16, 2024.

The cleaning of U.S. natural gas; evolution of differentiated gas and related crediting mechanisms 2/15/24

The cleaning of U.S. natural gas; evolution of differentiated gas and related crediting mechanisms

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler and Student Researcher Felix Ayaburi write about the concept of differentiated gas, the emerging role of crediting mechanisms in promoting its adoption, and the prospects for demand growth and its evolution.  After rapid growth in the supply of U.S. differentiated gas through late 2021 and 2022, demand is rising from domestic utilities and industry as well as European energy companies. February 15, 2024.

Gore-Tex maker polluted some Marylanders’ drinking water with ‘forever chemicals,’ officials say. The question is how many. 2/15/2024

Gore-Tex maker polluted some Marylanders’ drinking water with ‘forever chemicals,’ officials say. The question is how many.

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributes to this article about how the maker of the renowned Gore-Tex waterproofing for outdoor gear polluted groundwater near two of its plants in Northeastern Maryland with a hazardous “forever chemical,” according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. February 15, 2024.

SOLAR SURGE PUTS PRESSURE ON SILVER SUPPLY (BUT LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING) 2/14/24

SOLAR SURGE PUTS PRESSURE ON SILVER SUPPLY (BUT LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING)

Payne Institute Communications Associate Kristin Ziv and Director Morgan Bazilian write about the global demand for solar panels and as it soars, so does the demand for silver – a key component in the manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) panels. Solar installations are breaking records worldwide in both volume and low price, according to BloombergNEF. February 14, 2024.

Mines to receive $1.5M in federal funding to explore potential of geologic hydrogen 2/12/2024

Mines to receive $1.5M in federal funding to explore potential of geologic hydrogen

Funding part of first-ever U.S. government effort to research technologies related to stimulation and reservoir management of geologic hydrogen.

Colorado School of Mines announced today that it has been selected to receive $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). February 12, 2024.

The U.S. Military and NATO Face Serious Risks of Mineral Shortages 2/12/24

The U.S. Military and NATO Face Serious Risks of Mineral Shortages

Payne Institute Communications Associate Greg Wischer writes about how critical minerals undergird great power competition and war. These nonfuel minerals and mineral materials are vital to countries’ defense industrial bases, enabling the production of military platforms like tanks as well as munitions and artillery shells. Therefore, mineral supplies can help sustain military power, while mineral shortages can severely undermine it. February 12, 2024.

Does the US Military Have Enough Minerals for a Possible Conflict with China? Estimating Shortfalls for Military Materials 2/12/2024

Does the US Military Have Enough Minerals for a Possible Conflict with China? Estimating Shortfalls for Military Materials

Payne Institute Communications Associate Greg Wischer and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the National Defense Stockpile is a tool to both reduce America’s reliance on foreign materials, especially materials from China, and to prepare for a possible conflict.  Material shortfalls can impact—and have impacted—U.S. warfighting ability. Better understanding the military’s projected shortfall quantities for individual materials would inform what materials—and corresponding applications—the U.S. military will most likely have shortfalls of during a conflict.  February 12, 2024.

TRANSPARENCY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY: THE VITAL LINK BETWEEN MONITORING AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION IN CCS INITIATIVES 2/9/24

TRANSPARENCY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY: THE VITAL LINK BETWEEN MONITORING AND PUBLIC PERCEPTION IN CCS INITIATIVES

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and Project Canary’s Charlie Losche write about how the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has catalyzed significant growth in CCS, with projections indicating a substantial increase in capture capacity by 2035.  With this expansion comes challenges, notably in securing Class VI permits for CO2 injection, and most pressingly in maintaining public trust. February 9, 2024.

World continues to learn from Colorado’s oil-and-gas methane controls 2/8/2024

World continues to learn from Colorado’s oil-and-gas methane controls

Ten years ago this month, Colorado became the first U.S. state to directly tackle methane emissions from oil and natural gas production. Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Policy and Outreach Advisor for Responsible Gas Simon Lomax and, Program Manager of the Sustainable Finance Lab Brad Handler explore how the lessons learned in Colorado are reflected in national and international approaches to regulating methane, which has taken on new urgency recently.  February 8, 2024.

Letter from the US: Chesapeake-Southwestern merger is big deal for US LNG 2/6/2024

Letter from the US: Chesapeake-Southwestern merger is big deal for US LNG

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Policy and Outreach Advisor for Responsible Gas Simon Lomax and, Program Manager of the Sustainable Finance Lab Brad Handler comment on the Chesapeake-Southwestern merger’s potential to foster more differentiated gas use in LNG exports.  The merger comes amid a wave of multibillion dollar oil industry tie-ups, including ExxonMobil buying Texas-headquartered Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron buying New York-headquartered Hess. February 6, 2024.

Why lithium prices have been on a roller coaster ride 2/6/2024

Why lithium prices have been on a roller coaster ride

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange is interviewed on Marketplace talking about how the prices of the metal have fallen about 80% in the past year, and two U.S. lithium companies have cut jobs and pulled back their capital spending recently. The latest is a company called Piedmont Lithium, which announced cuts Tuesday. February 6, 2024.

Ignoring Indigenous rights is making the green transition more expensive 2/2/2024

Ignoring Indigenous rights is making the green transition more expensive

Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) Initiative Program Manager Rick Tallman contributes to this article about how as more companies look to build wind and solar farms or mine minerals for renewable energy, failing to recognize Indigenous sovereignty could make the clean energy transition a lot more expensive and much farther away.  February 2, 2024.

How Can Capturing Carbon and Monitoring Methane Play a Role in the Energy Transition? 2/2/2024

How Can Capturing Carbon and Monitoring Methane Play a Role in the Energy Transition?

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton, Paulina Lanz, and Justine Huang are on this podcast discussing how in 2022, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reached a high of 53 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent. To bring that down to net zero, we can either stop emitting GHGs into the atmosphere, or we can pull out CO2 that has already been emitted. Also in this episode, Will Daniels, a Payne Institute student researcher is interviewed, talking about methods for detecting methane emissions from oil and gas production and the role that data might play in reducing these emissions. February 2, 2024.

Biden’s EV agenda hits mining world’s boom-and-bust cycle

Biden’s EV agenda hits mining world’s boom-and-bust cycle

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributed to this article about how President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle agenda could be in for a roller coaster ride, but this time it can’t be blamed on thorny politics, range anxiety or the effect of falling temperatures on chargers. Instead the focus now is on the price of lithium. The price of the key EV battery ingredient plummeted in recent months, not because of any policy action but due to the simple laws of supply and demand.  January 31, 2024.

Mines alumni working to create a zero-carbon steel future 1/31/2024

Mines alumni working to create a zero-carbon steel future 

Steve Sparkowich ’89 and Daniel Wright ’21 work on the inert anode team at green steel startup Boston Metal.

Steel is one of the most important construction materials in the world, giving buildings and bridges a sound structure and adding strength and stability to the most common construction material globally: concrete. Global crude steel production reached nearly 2 billion tons in 2022, and demand is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. But the steel industry creates 11 percent of global carbon emissions and 7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Though many companies are working toward reducing the industry’s outsized carbon footprint, two Orediggers are lending their expertise to an innovative zero-carbon method of producing the material at green steel startup Boston Metal. January 31, 2024.

Colorado School of Mines, Idaho National Laboratory expand research partnership 1/31/2024Colorado School of Mines, Idaho National Laboratory expand research partnership 1/31/2024

Colorado School of Mines, Idaho National Laboratory expand research partnership

Energy storage, geothermal energy and next-generation mining are among topics for five-year collaboration.

Colorado School of Mines and Idaho National Laboratory have agreed to expand their joint efforts in scientific research for the next five years. A memorandum of understanding signed in late October establishes a framework for both institutions to collaborate on projects involved with energy storage, high-temperature fuel cells, geothermal energy systems, nuclear fuel cycle and reactor engineering, environmental science, and next-generation mining science and engineering. January 31, 2024. 

LNG Exports Shouldn’t Be the Next Keystone Campaign 1/26/2024

LNG Exports Shouldn’t Be the Next Keystone Campaign

Payne Institute Fellow Liam Denning writes this article on the greenest White House the US has ever seen also happens to preside over a record-breaking domestic oil and gas boom. While that complicates Republican talking points, it also stokes a conflict within President Joe Biden’s own party that has now found its battleground: Liquefied natural gas. January 26,2024.

How Does a “Reverse Sprinkler” Work? Researchers Solve Decades-Old Physics Puzzle 01/26/24

How Does a “Reverse Sprinkler” Work? Researchers Solve Decades-Old Physics Puzzle

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Brennan Sprinkle contributes to this article about how for decades scientists have been trying to solve Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem: How does a sprinkler running in reverse—in which the water flows into the device rather than out of it—work? Through a series of experiments, a team of mathematicians has figured out how flowing fluids exert forces and move structures, thereby revealing the answer to this long-standing mystery. January 26, 2024.

What is the Cost of Going Green? (Part B) 1/23/24

WHAT IS THE COST OF GOING GREEN? Perspectives from Ghana (PART B)

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton, Paulina Lanz, and Justine Huang are on this podcast (part B) discussing what the real costs of going green are, and who is going to pay the bill?  In Part B of the episode, Jim chats with a panel of Payne Institute student researchers from Ghana at the Colorado School of Mines – Eben Manful-Sam, John Ayaburi, Rueben Anafo and Felix Ayaburi– who help us better understand the challenges of sustainable development from a sub-Saharan Africa perspective. January 23, 2024.

What is the Cost of Going Green? (Part A) 1/19/2024

What is the Cost of Going Green? (Part A)

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton, Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, Paulina Lanz, and Justine Huang are on this podcast discussing what are the real costs of going green, and who is going to pay the bill?  Brad Handler breaks down why we are still investing so much in fossil fuels, the investments that might be needed to support the growth of renewable energy, and how we might redirect investments towards developing countries that will play a large role in the energy transition. We also dive into why oil companies have been so profitable, whether divesting from fossil fuels is a good idea, and the role that Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry might play in the energy transition.  January 19, 2024.

Building Trust through an Equitable and Inclusive Energy Transition 1/17/2024

Building Trust through an Equitable and Inclusive Energy Transition

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this report by the World Economic Forum that provides a framework and 10 critical questions, aiming to build trust, encourage collaboration and guide policy-makers and business leaders in the energy sector towards advancing a just, equitable and inclusive energy transition.  January 17, 2024.

Fast-growing ‘carbon-neutral’ energy company ramps up oil and gas production 1/16/2024

Fast-growing ‘carbon-neutral’ energy company ramps up oil and gas production

Payne Institute Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler contributed to this article about the Canadian wildfires this past summer, killing at least 17 people and burning more than 45.7 million acres — blazes that were made 50% more intense by climate change fueled by the burning of fossil fuels — some Canadians took out their anger on their country’s pension plan. They demanded that the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board stop investing their retirement savings in a Colorado oil and gas company that’s ramped up its extraction activity in recent years, drilling near homes, schools and parks.  January 16, 2024.  

First Uranium Mines to Dig in the US in Eight Years Begin Operations Near Grand Canyon 1/15/2024

First Uranium Mines to Dig in the US in Eight Years Begin Operations Near Grand Canyon

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about the push for more nuclear energy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  How it has spiked uranium prices, leading mines for the element to begin operating again in the U.S. despite long-term environmental and health impacts. January 15, 2024.

Analysis of world trade data with machine learning to enhance policies of mineral supply chain transparency 1/13/2024

Analysis of world trade data with machine learning to enhance policies of mineral supply chain transparency

Umut Mete Saka, Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Sebnem Düzgün, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how utilizing machine learning to help the integration of supply chains worldwide and the establishment of resilient material flows emphasize the significance of transparency on mineral supplies. As regulations and policies around mineral supply become more stringent, organizations are actively seeking effective tools to assess the transparency of their supply chains.  January 13, 2024.

Comparing methods for criticality and security in minerals for clean energy 1/13/2024

Comparing methods for criticality and security in minerals for clean energy

Mines Advanced Energy Systems Student Eliza Hotchkiss, Maria Paz Urdaneta, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how energy security goals, supply chain risks, production growth, and market dynamics will shape the future of critical mineral methodologies.  This paper reviews two methodologies employed for critical mineral identification from nations committed to clean energy transitions.  January 13, 2024.

Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals 1/11/2024

Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals

Vice President for Global Initiatives John Bradford contributed to this article about how Saudi Arabia is eyeing to fuel its post-oil future with mineral resources.  On January 10th the government revised its estimate of the value of its buried mineral wealth from $1.3trn to $2.5trn. This includes deposits of gold, copper and zinc.  January 11, 2024.

The US shale magnate trying to sell oil and gas jobs to Generation Z 1/8/2024

The US shale magnate trying to sell oil and gas jobs to Generation Z

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jennifer Miskimins contributed to this article about how US shale magnate Harold Hamm is leading attempts to lure an increasingly skeptical younger generation to the oil and gas industry as climate concerns and job insecurity dent the attractiveness of the industry for graduates and skilled tradespeople. January 8, 2024.

 

Lithium nexus: Energy, geopolitics, and socio-environmental impacts in Mexico’s Sonora project 12/22/2023

Lithium nexus: Energy, geopolitics, and socio-environmental impacts in Mexico’s Sonora project

Vlado Vivoda, Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian, Asmaa Khadim, Natalie Ralph, and Ghaleb Krame write about how the global transition to low-carbon energy systems has dramatically increased the demand for lithium, essential for energy storage and transport electrification—with lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries as the dominant technology in both market segments.  Enter the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico, home to what could be one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.  This paper delves into these challenges using the Sonora Project as a lens, aiming to provide clarity and insights for various decision-makers, stakeholders, and researchers.  December 22, 2023.

Students tackle upcycling, reducing waste streams in Cornerstone Design 12/18/2023

Students tackle upcycling, reducing waste streams in Cornerstone Design

Winning team used AI to better inform public on recycling practices.

Earth has a waste problem. Processing materials, fuels and food contributes to up to half of greenhouse gas emissions – and recycling isn’t a perfect solution, either, requiring its own energy to re-process and break down materials, not to mention transportation and the re-manufacturing of goods. December 18, 2024.

Solid oxide fuel cell at Colorado Fuel Cell Center now helping to power Mines campus 12/18/2023

Solid oxide fuel cell at Colorado Fuel Cell Center now helping to power Mines campus 

First-of-its-kind prototype capable of generating almost 30 kW of electric power from natural gas, low-carbon fuels.

Researchers at Colorado School of Mines are currently testing a novel pressurized solid oxide fuel cell power module that is capable of generating almost 30 kilowatts of electric power from natural gas and low-carbon fuels. December 18, 2023.

Nations strike historic deal to transition off fossil fuels 12/13/2023

Nations strike historic deal to transition off fossil fuels

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how nearly 200 countries agreed to “transitioning away” from fossil fuels in energy systems in an agreement reached at the global climate summit.  The use of the “transitioning away” language comes after a contentious debate about whether or not the agreement should “phase out” fossil fuels or simply reduce their use.  December 13, 2023.

COP28: 5 big takeaways on a historic climate agreement 12/13/2023

COP28: 5 big takeaways on a historic climate agreement

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how this year’s United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) has ended with a historic new agreement: For the first time, world governments have said countries should transition away from fossil fuels.  Climate advocates have praised it as a step forward, but also raised concerns about potential loopholes in its language and criticized it for not going further as the climate crisis deepens — and fossil fuel production continues to increase. December 13, 2023.

What does the groundbreaking COP28 agreement mean for the US? 12/13/2023

What does the groundbreaking COP28 agreement mean for the US?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how the unprecedented agreement reached at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai this week is unlikely to prompt a dramatic upheaval in the U.S. energy landscape, but it could bolster efforts to shift the country toward energy sources that are less harmful to the planet. The text, released Wednesday, calls for a “transition away” from planet-warming fossil fuels, marking the first time such language has appeared in a COP agreement. It further calls for tripling renewable energy development and doubling energy efficiency.  December 13, 2023.

Transition finance advances at COP28 12/12/2023

Transition finance advances at COP28

Payne Institute Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how announcements made during the COP28 climate talks signal progress on several fronts when it comes to unlocking finance to support the energy transition.  Transition finance holds the key in terms of giving the owners of emitting assets the financial incentive for closure or conversion, but flows of transition finance have not risen to the challenge so far.   December 12, 2023.

STACKING 45Q WITH VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKETS 12/11/2023

STACKING 45Q WITH VOLUNTARY CARBON MARKETS

Payne Institute CCUS Program Manager Anna Littlefield and Fellows Siew Chiang and Mike Matson write about how CCS has been at the forefront of decarbonization commitments in public and private sectors, with the development of CCS projects rapidly accelerating in the U.S. following the signing of federal incentives of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  They explore the economic pathways for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, beginning with “credit stacking” voluntary carbon market credits and Section 45Q tax credits, with additional pieces on both the California-based Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Section 45Z tax credit.  December 11, 2023.

Why the U.S. has a serious mining worker shortage 12/8/2023

Why the U.S. has a serious mining worker shortage

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jessica Smith and Research Associate Juliet Akamboe contributed to this news video about the role that miners play in the transition to green energy.  The demand for rare earth minerals such as lithium, cobalt and copper, critical components used to make batteries for electric vehicles and smartphones, is on the rise, and with it, the need for the expertise of miners.  December 8, 2023.

Vietnam Renewables: Investment Priorities 12/6/2023

Vietnam Renewables: Investment Priorities

Centre for Climate Finance & Investment at Imperial College Business School led a team, including the Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, to write “Vietnam Renewables: Investment Priorities”, a review of prospects and challenges to deploy more renewable energy in the country. The report offers specific steps for further renewable power deployment in Vietnam in the context of its economic growth and incredible resource potential (solar and wind), through a combination of policy and market mechanisms. December 6, 2023.

Enabling Finance for Net-Zero Energy Transitions 12/6/2023

Enabling Finance for Net-Zero Energy Transitions

Payne Institute Program Manager Bradley Handler, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Johannes Urpelainen and others write about how the key issue of financing of the transition required in the energy sector to get to net-zero targets. It identifies key technologies, maps them to potential sources of finance, identifies key barriers to at scale deployment, and suggests potential solutions to these barriers.  Policy solutions include setting net-zero targets and creating sector specific pathways, enabling cost-effective procurement, providing supporting policies, and enabling a diverse financial sector. Financial solutions include development of risk-mitigation instruments, blended finance funds, and innovative financial products.   December 6, 2023.

OGCI accelerates action to tackle global oil and gas methane emissions 12/5/2023

OGCI accelerates action to tackle global oil and gas methane emissions

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) announced at COP28 that it has stepped up activities on methane detection and flaring to help more companies reduce methane emissions from their oil and gas operations.  OGCI expanded its flagship Satellite Monitoring Campaign (SMC) to include more countries and assets. This was complemented by work with the World Bank’s Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership (GFMR) and US-based Payne Institute for Public Policy to launch a more accessible platform on global gas flaring data.  December 5, 2023.

U.S. EV Makers Are Still Stuck on China. The Stakes Are Rising. 12/5/2023

U.S. EV Makers Are Still Stuck on China. The Stakes Are Rising.

Payne Institute Student Researcher Isabel Guajardo, Program Manager Brad Handler and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how U.S. automakers are dependent on China for important aspects of EV construction. It’s in the interests of the U.S. economy to accommodate the current shortcomings, work with allies, and make long-term investments toward more robust and resilient sourcing.  December 5, 2023.

Mines researchers receive $3M in DoD funding to develop processes to not just remove but destroy PFAS 12/1/2023

Mines researchers receive $3M in DoD funding to develop processes to not just remove but destroy PFAS

Research team will design, build and demonstrate an integrated system of 3 technologies for removal, concentration and destruction of PFAS in contaminated water streams.

Although poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be reliably removed from contaminated water resources, the best available treatment approaches use separation processes that create an issue all their own. December 1, 2023.

COLORADO FUEL CELL CENTER NOW POWERING MINES CAMPUS 11/30/2023

COLORADO FUEL CELL CENTER NOW POWERING MINES CAMPUS

The research team at the Colorado Fuel Cell Center is now powering the Mines electrical grid as part of a U.S.Department of Energy program on low-carbon, distributed electricity generation. The program is managed through DoE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), and features a fuel-cell / reciprocating engine hybrid system targeting 100 kW of net electricity generation at 70% efficiency under natural gas fuel, more than double the efficiency of today’s conventional electric generators.  November 30, 2023.

Where the World Is (and Isn’t) Making Progress on Climate Change 11/30/2023

Where the World Is (and Isn’t) Making Progress on Climate Change

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how emissions from electricity and transportation are projected to fall over time, a new report finds, but industry remains a major climate challenge.  To tackle dangerous global warming, countries have started to clean up their power plants and cars. But emissions from heavy industry — like cement, steel or chemical factories — have been harder to curb and are now on pace to become by far the world’s largest source of planet-warming pollution.  November 30, 2023.

AS AMERICA’S MILITARY REARMS, IT NEEDS MINERALS—AND LOTS OF THEM 11/29/2023

AS AMERICA’S MILITARY REARMS, IT NEEDS MINERALS—AND LOTS OF THEM

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Macdonald Amoah write about how the US military is attempting to quickly replenish diminished weapons stocks in its largest production ramp-up in decades. To ensure a secure, resilient, and sufficient mineral supply for its platforms and munitions, the Department of Defense should refine its approach to mineral stockpiling, its engagement with mineral mining and refining, and its implementation of mineral recycling.  November 29, 2023.

Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Two Years Late and Still Crazy 11/29/2023

Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Two Years Late and Still Crazy

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow John Speer contributed to this article about how after years of delays, Tesla will livestream its Cybertruck delivery event Thursday. Car experts still can’t believe it’s trying to mass-produce a vehicle with such a challenging design.  One theme of the Cybertruck’s off-kilter aesthetic is simplicity—straight lines, bare surfaces, sharp corners. Taking that approach actually makes building the thing a lot more complex.  November 29, 2023.

Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023 11/28/2023

Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023 

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, a World Economic Forum Advisory Council Member, contributed to the second edition of the Net-Zero Industry Tracker report provides a detailed analysis of the progress heavy industrial and transport sectors are making worldwide, in their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. These sectors, which account for more than 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, need multifaceted solutions that accelerate the speed of technology development, build supporting infrastructure, and raise necessary capital to finance the transformation.  November 28, 2023.

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils 11/26/2023

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributes to this article about how PFAS or “forever chemicals” leach into the groundwater and pose a health risk, they sit in soils — where they can be washed out or otherwise treated before they reach an aquifer. The chemicals can cause a range of health problems at high levels in humans.  Researchers from the Colorado School of Mines and Clarkson University expect to compare nine different strategies for removing firefighting foam from the soils at the Schriever Space Force Base to help inform how soils at other sites could be treated in the future.  November 26, 2023.

Align the VCM with Internal Carbon Pricing 11/21/2023

Align the VCM with internal carbon pricing

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how companies can boost confidence in the voluntary market by using their internal carbon prices as reference points against which to measure the implied climate contribution of their purchased offsets. November 21, 2023.

 

Students tackle energy problems at GEFI Innov8x Challenge 11/21/2023

Students tackle energy problems at GEFI Innov8x Challenge

Mines Global Energy Future Initiative and the McNeil Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation hosted the 2023 Global Energy Future Initiative (GEFI) Innov8x Challenge on November 3.  The challenges were presented by two energy companies: Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Chevron asked the teams to find creative ways to re-purpose produced water in the Permian Basin, while ConocoPhillips had teams envision ways to make a heater treater used in oil and gas operations more efficient and produce less emissions.  In addition to providing students with real-world opportunities to innovate for the likes of Chevron and ConocoPhillips, companies gain fresh perspectives and practical, out-of-the-box solutions.  November 21, 2023.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment 11/14/2023

The Fifth National Climate Assessment

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian was one of the contributing authors of the U.S. Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.  However, without deeper cuts in global net greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated adaptation efforts, severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow.  November 14, 2023.

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out. 11/13/2023

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out.

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how nine different techniques for getting PFAS out of toxic dirt will be tested next year at Schriever Space Force Base near Colorado Springs.  Even the environmental watchdogs cataloging the depressing toll of “forever chemicals” throughout the food chain say they are encouraged by the School of Mines test.  November 13, 2023.  

EMPOWERING OR REPRESSIVE: NAVIGATING THE COMPLEXITIES OF RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS IN THE US 11/13/2023

Empowering or Repressive: Navigating the Complexities of Renewable Portfolio Standards in the US

Payne Institute Student Researcher Siddhant Kulkarni and Program Manager Anna Littlefield write about how Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) represent a strategic push by governments to usher in an era of clean, renewable energy. While RPS are not the only policy-mechanisms that incentivize renewable energy, they have been in place for decades across the world. Data from the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) shows that worldwide installed renewable energy capacity has almost doubled in the last decade, thanks in part to the RPS policies implemented. In the US these regulations are particular to individual states and aim to combat increasing greenhouse gas emissions and by extension, climate change.  November 13, 2023.

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base 11/10/2023

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a project headed by the Colorado School of Mines to test the best clean up methods for PFAS-contaminated materials is set to begin next summer on Schriever Space Force Base.  According to Christopher Higgins, a School of Mines professor working on the Department of Defense-funded project, those working on the project will be testing six different PFAS clean up technologies on soils they say the base has set aside for testing in an effort to see which is the most effective on a larger scale.  November 10, 2023.

WHAT IF AMERICA’S MINERAL-INTENSIVE MILITARY RUNS OUT OF MINERALS? 11/10/2023

WHAT IF AMERICA’S MINERAL-INTENSIVE MILITARY RUNS OUT OF MINERALS?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, Gregory Wischer, and Juliet Akamboe write about how minerals still undergird warfighting technology, including defense platforms and munitions.  Like previous junctions in human history, the current period will be defined by minerals and the warfighting technology that they enable. November 10, 2023.

Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Offsets and Fossil Fuel Retirement Credits 11/10/2023

Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Offsets and Fossil Fuel Retirement Credits

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler is one of two guests today on the S&P Global Energy Evolution podcast.  They are talking about carbon offset markets and oil and gas retirement credits. What function do these tools serve in the broader decarbonization push, and how exactly are we calculating them anyway? November 10, 2023.

Native American Energy Sovereignty is key to American Energy Security 11/9/2023

Native American Energy Sovereignty is key to American Energy Security

Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) Initiative Program Manager Rick Tallman, Daniel Cardenas, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how as the energy transition plays out across the United States, tribal communities see both a tremendous opportunity and a direct threat to their sovereignty. The immense natural resources of tribal lands will almost certainly be needed to help secure the future of American energy security. At the same time, a history of energy exploitation has left reservation communities with systemic problems and unmet needs that energy policy makers, regulators and industry leaders must acknowledge, understand, and address in any go-forward plans.  November 9, 2023.

How Cutting Methane Emissions Became Good For Business 11/09/2023

How Cutting Methane Emissions Became Good For Business

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, and Responsible Gas Program Manager Simon Lomax write about how methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and fast reductions will help stabilize the climate more than any other action we can take in the short term. November 9, 2023.

A Pathway to Responsible Mining in Indian Country 11/09/2023

A Pathway to Responsible Mining in Indian Country

Payne Institute Program Managers Rick Tallman and Brad Handler, Director Morgan Bazilian and Daniel Cardenas write about how the demand for minerals critical to both the energy transition and U.S. national security is growing rapidly. At the same time, the reliability of the global supply chain is being challenged by geopolitical events. The result is a growing call to bring more mining for these critical minerals back to the United States, where the vast majority of critical mineral reserves are located on or within 35 miles of Native American reservations.  November 9, 2023.

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level 11/7/2023

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Tabares-Velasco is featured in this article about receiving funding from the DOE Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) program, for two projects specifically aimed at making energy efficiency, electrification and resiliency possibility for communities in Colorado: a home battery energy storage system for retrofitted housing in in Colorado and a new heat pump water heater with latent heat storage in low-income housing.  November 7, 2023.

CFCC CRANKS 10KW CARBON FREE 11/6/2023

CFCC CRANKS 10KW CARBON FREE

The research team at the Colorado Fuel Cell Center recently generated 10 kW of carbon-free electricity with hydrogen-fueled solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This power level is the highest ever demonstrated at the CFCC, and serves as a stepping-stone towards the 30-kW target prescribed in our Department of Energy “INTEGRATE” research and development program. November 6, 2023.

Mines alum creates business out of microscopic masterpieces 11/1/2023

Mines alum creates business out of microscopic masterpieces

A geologist by training, Teresa Johnson ’10, MS ’15 combines science, art and sustainability through the personal and home decor brand Terra Persona.

If you’ve ever looked at a rock sample under a microscope, you might think you’re looking at an intricate piece of abstract art. November 1, 2023.

Measurement-based differentiation of low-emission global natural gas supply chains 11/2/2023

Measurement-based differentiation of low-emission global natural gas supply chains

Payne Institute Fellow Arvind P. Ravikumar, Erin E. Tullos, David T. Allen, Ben Cahill, Steven P. Hamburg, Daniel Zimmerle, Thomas A. Fox, Manfredi Caltagirone, Lara Owens, Robert Stout, Andrew J. Grimes, Tania M. Fernandez, Carrie Jenks, Riley Duren, Antoine Halff, Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian, and Stefanie Rucker write about how a differentiated natural gas market is emerging as a key mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across global natural gas supply chains. Trust in such voluntary markets across civil society, industry and governments depends on a transparent framework for reporting independently verifiable and accurate emissions data.  November 2, 2023.

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB 11/1/2023

Colleges and companies collaborate to study PFAS soil purification methods at Schriever SFB

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a team of scientists at the Colorado School of Mines alongside other major universities will be testing out soil purification technologies at Schriever Space Force Base.  It’s an international effort to defeat what is commonly known as “Forever Chemicals.”  The three universities and five companies, both foreign and domestic, are testing technologies to get these chemicals out of soils. The work is funded by the Department of Defense.  November 1, 2023.

‘Lunar gold rush’: NASA wants to mine the moon 11/1/2023

‘Lunar gold rush’: NASA wants to mine the moon

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Angel Abbud-Madrid contributes to this article about how mining the moon isn’t just fodder for the movies.  Scientists at NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are using their Earthly expertise to identify and catalog resources on the celestial body to look for valuable materials — from minerals and crushed rock that can be used to make dwellings and equipment, to ice that can be turned into drinking water and even rocket fuel.  November 1, 2023.

Critical mineral demand estimates for low-carbon technologies: What do they tell us and how can they evolve? 10/31/2023

Critical mineral demand estimates for low-carbon technologies: What do they tell us and how can they evolve?

Mines Student Researcher Jordy Lee Calderon, Faculty Fellows Nicole Smith and Elizabeth Holley, and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the transition to low-carbon energy systems will increase demand for a range of critical minerals and metals. As a result, several quantitative demand models have been developed to help understand the projected scale of growth and if, and to what extent, material shortages may become an obstacle to the deployment of clean energy technologies. October 31, 2023.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR Circumventing the Chokepoint: Can the US Produce More Rare Earths? 10/30/2023

Circumventing the Chokepoint: Can the US Produce More Rare Earths?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Gregory Wischer write about China’s dominance in the production of heavy rare earths affords it leverage over US national security and economic prosperity. To reduce this vulnerability, the US government has sought to increase domestic rare production, but to limited effect. To better encourage private sector investment in American rare earth projects, the industry’s high barriers to entry—including capital costs, technical challenges, and an incumbent oligopoly—must be addressed.  October 30, 2023.

VCMs’ other fragmentation problem 10/27/2023

VCMs’ other fragmentation problem

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Manager Brad Handler writes about how in mid-October, he had the opportunity to attend and present at the biannual World Investment Forum (WIF), sponsored by the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The WIF’s goal is to spur more sustainable development investment in low- and middle-income economies. The agenda included full-throated support for voluntary carbon markets (VCMs), to lure capital towards the energy transition and to help countries meet decarbonisation commitments set out under their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).  October 27, 2023.

GOVERNMENTS’ RECENT STEPS TO ADVANCE CLIMATE IMPACT; SELECT WORLD INVESTMENT FORUM HIGHLIGHTS 10/25/2023

GOVERNMENTS’ RECENT STEPS TO ADVANCE CLIMATE IMPACT; SELECT WORLD INVESTMENT FORUM HIGHLIGHTS

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about the 8th World Investment Forum focused on spurring sustainable development across low and middle income economies. The challenges loomed large, as speakers noted that not only were absolute spending levels far short of what was needed to be “on track” to meet energy transition and SDG targets, but that recent spending in the developing world was far too concentrated in select economies.  October 25, 2023.

America’s Trade War With China Spills Into Clean Energy 10/24/2023

America’s Trade War With China Spills Into Clean Energy

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how what began as a dispute over world-leading computer chips is now rocking the auto and clean energy industries. The new restrictions show that America and China’s growing trade battle over “dual-use technologies” — tools and materials that can be used by both civilians and the military — is proving difficult to contain. What began as a dispute over world-leading computer chips is now rocking the auto and clean energy industries.  October 24, 2023.  

Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining 10/20/2023

Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributed to this article about how asteroids are rich with the metals used in clean energy technologies. As demand soars, advocates argue that mining them in space might be better than mining them on Earth. While some companies are exploring the controversial idea of scooping cobalt, nickel, and platinum from the seafloor, some asteroids could harbor the same minerals in abundance—and have no wildlife that could be harmed during their extraction.  October 20, 2023.

China limits exports of graphite, a key mineral for EV batteries 10/20/2023

China limits exports of graphite, a key mineral for EV batteries

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian is featured on this podcast about how China said Friday that it would start requiring stricter permits on exports of graphite, a key mineral component of pencils, but perhaps more importantly, a key mineral component of electric vehicle batteries.  It’s the latest development in a China-U.S. trade war that’s making the transition to a green economy more expensive.  October 20, 2023.

Are PFAS really ‘forever chemicals’? It’s complicated. Here’s what to know 10/19/2023

Are PFAS really ‘forever chemicals’? It’s complicated. Here’s what to know

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributed to this article about how for the past five years, public awareness around PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” has been growing in the U.S.  A growing body of evidence has shown that long-term exposure, even to low traces of these chemicals, can cause severe health issues that include cancer, developmental effects and reproductive disorders.  October 19, 2023.

TAKING THE FIGHT TO FOREVER CHEMICALS 10/16/2023

TAKING THE FIGHT TO FOREVER CHEMICALS

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins is featured in an article about how Mines launched a broad-based research initiative earlier this year to advance scientific understanding of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs, and develop practical engineering solutions to address these so-called “forever chemicals,” one of the largest-scale environmental and public health challenges facing the U.S. today. October 16, 2023

SHAPING THE NEXT TECHNOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE 10/16/2023

SHAPING THE NEXT TECHNOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Sebnem Düzgün is featured in an article about how the world is now in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: a cyber-physical expansion that is, according to the World Economic Forum, “blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.” October 16, 2023

Modular Carbon Capture and The Inflation Reduction Act 10/12/2023

Modular Carbon Capture and The Inflation Reduction Act

Payne Institute Program Manager Anna Littlefield writes about how as the field of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) continues to evolve, the importance of modular carbon capture technologies has become increasingly apparent. August of 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) being signed into law, and its potential to incentivize smaller-scale capture systems is manifesting in modular capture innovation. October 12, 2023.

Energy Security, Critical Minerals, and Energy Policy 10/11/2023

Energy Security, Critical Minerals, and Energy Policy

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian is on this podcast discussing domestic and international energy security, critical minerals, and energy policy.  A lot of the narrative on critical minerals revolves around the supply chain demand that comes from the 17 rare earth minerals needed for computer chips, batteries, solar energy, and other needs.  October 11, 2023.  

Mining execs warn of disconnect between metals appetite, pace of new projects 10/5/2023

Mining execs warn of disconnect between metals appetite, pace of new projects

The Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how lithium, like that extracted from the Silver Peak mine in Nevada, plays a major role in energy transition technologies. However, it is just one of many metals needed by the sector and mining companies fret that permitting is not happening fast enough to keep up with demand for several commodities.  October 5, 2023.

Energy Security at the UN High-Level Week: More Heat Than Light 10/3/2023

Energy Security at the UN High-Level Week: More Heat Than Light

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Cullen Hendrix write about how U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the 78th United Nations General Assembly High-Level Week a “one-of-a-kind opportunity each year to harness the power of diplomacy and collaborate on solutions to global challenges.” But from an energy security perspective, the meetings only spotlighted the mismatch between the nature of the world’s shared problems and the institutions and tools designed to address them. October 3, 2023.

Iron batteries offer an energy transition lesson 10/2/2023

Iron batteries offer an energy transition lesson

Payne Institute Program Manager Simon Lomax writes about how to build a zero-carbon economy, we need technologies that can store large amounts of energy for a long time.  But in Colorado, a promising new battery technology is being prepared for use by the state’s largest utility, Xcel Energy. It’s called an “iron-air” battery and, quite fittingly, it will be built in the iron and steel town of Pueblo.  October 2, 2023.  

Payne Institute report assesses supply chain variables for critical minerals 9/29/2023

Payne Institute report assesses supply chain variables for critical minerals

The Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines released The State of Critical Minerals Report 2023. The analysis examines how the increasing demand for the critical minerals necessary to power a green economy will impact global communities, markets, national security, and geopolitics.  The United States Geological Survey suggests that lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite are the metals needed to power electric vehicles. Alternatively, arsenic, gallium, germanium, indium, and tellurium are essential to constructing solar panels. September 29, 2023.

PAYNE INSTITUTE TO CONVENE TALKS ON DIFFERENTIATED GAS VERIFICATION STANDARDS IN COLLABORATION WITH EEMDL RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP 9/28/2023

PAYNE INSTITUTE TO CONVENE TALKS ON DIFFERENTIATED GAS VERIFICATION STANDARDS IN COLLABORATION WITH EEMDL RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP

As part of its ongoing work with the Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab (EEMDL), the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines is commencing a new stakeholder dialogue focused on the independent verification of standards and other governance issues in the rapidly evolving differentiated gas market.  EEMDL was established in early 2023 to improve the accuracy of greenhouse gas measurement and accounting across global energy supply chains, starting with methane emissions. September 28, 2023.

Payne Institute for Public Policy Releases First Annual State of Critical Minerals Report

Payne Institute for Public Policy Releases First Annual State of Critical Minerals Report

The Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines released today its first annual State of Critical Minerals Report on the growing demand for critical minerals and their impact on energy transitions, communities, markets, national security and geopolitics.  The energy transition—and increased demand for electric cars, solar panels and other low-carbon technologies—is reliant on critical minerals. Many of these minerals, however, are mined and processed in adversarial nations or countries with low environmental, labor and human rights standards. In fact, of the 50 minerals identified on the U.S. Geological Survey Critical Minerals List, the U.S. is 100 percent reliant on imports for 12 and more than 50 percent dependent for 31.  September 26, 2023.

THE STATE OF CRITICAL MINERALS REPORT 2023 9/26/2023

THE STATE OF CRITICAL MINERALS REPORT 2023

The Payne Institute for Public Policy and the Colorado School of Mines has released our inaugural annual State of Critical Minerals Report. The report is aimed at contributing to the important discourse on critical minerals and how to harness them in a more sustainable manner as a catalyst to the energy transition and by extension, climate action. It explores various parts of the critical minerals value chain and the interplay of these segments in driving a successful minerals industry.  The report covers geopolitics and what that means for national security, the demand and supply dynamics of critical minerals markets, financial markets and investments, the future of sustainable mining and the environment, and social governance (ESG) factors confronting the industry.  September 26, 2023.  

Prospects for American cobalt Reactions to mine proposals in Minnesota and Idaho 9/25/

Prospects for American cobalt Reactions to mine proposals in Minnesota and Idaho

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone, Faculty Fellows Nicole Smith and Elizabeth Holley, and Student Researcher Tinzar Htun write about how cobalt is a critical mineral for electric vehicles and the transition to renewable energy.  Two leading prospective regions for U.S. cobalt production, in Minnesota and Idaho. Our central aim is to understand why reactions to mining proposals have been divergent, with polarized, intractable debates that have stalled projects in Minnesota while proposed mines in Idaho have advanced with minimal controversy. We summarize the geology and mining methods of each project before analyzing similarities and differences in responses, organizing our analysis around facets of environment, identity and legitimacy, politics, and economy.  September 25, 2023.

FIRST ANNUAL CRITICAL MINERALS SYMPOSIUM 9/21&22/2023

FIRST ANNUAL CRITICAL MINERALS SYMPOSIUM

The Colorado School of Mines Payne Institute for Public Policy hosted the first annual Critical Minerals Symposium in Golden, Colorado. The event brought together more than 200 leaders from industry, academia, and government to address a broad range of complex challenges associated with critical minerals.  The event was opened with remarks from Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Chairman, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Ranking Member, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), watch their video replays here.  September 21 and 22, 2023.  

What Does Energy Transition Mean To You? 9/18/2023

What Does Energy Transition Mean To You?

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton is a co-host on this podcast hosting Dr. Ershaghi, Director of the Ershaghi Center for Energy Transition (E-CET), on the history of the energy transitions; where we stand in the race to net zero; the role that governments, private sector, and individuals play in the energy transition; and the importance of combating misinformation.  Also featured, Mathew Davis, a Master’s student in petroleum engineering at USC, on how he defines energy transition and the role that petroleum engineering plays in the energy transition.  September 18, 2023.  

U.S. House debates which minerals should be considered “critical” 9/14/2023

U.S. House debates which minerals should be considered “critical”

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dr. Roderick Eggert contributes to this article about how a recent U.S. House hearing that centered on a relatively unknown segment of federal energy policy quickly evolved into a discussion on how much the government should prioritize mining.  The Committee on Natural Resources focused on the U.S. Geological Survey’s list of critical minerals. The tally list includes several dozen well-known elements like aluminum, platinum and titanium. It also has lesser-known minerals – like lithium, cobalt and neodymium – that are used in modern technologies such as cell phone batteries and semiconductors.  September 14, 2023.

Mines faculty member testifies before U.S. House committee on critical minerals 9/13/2023

Mines faculty member testifies before U.S. House committee on critical minerals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dr. Roderick Eggert testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy & Mineral Resources on critical minerals and the structure and role of the U.S. Geological Survey’s critical minerals list.  As the United States rapidly accelerates its transition to a clean energy future, there is a growing focus on the role of critical minerals, many of which are mined, processed, and transported around the globe through complex supply chains.  September 13, 2023.

How Big Oil’s wastewater could fuel the EV revolution 9/12/2023

How Big Oil’s wastewater could fuel the EV revolution

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about how since oil and gas drilling began nearly 150 years ago, the salty wastewater it produces has been a nuisance for operators. Now, the electric vehicle revolution could turn the industry’s billions of barrels of brine into dollars. Oil and gas companies are eyeing their own byproduct — along with naturally occurring brine found deep underground — as a source of lithium, a highly sought-after metal needed to make EV batteries.  September 12, 2023.

New Arizona mines unearth new conflicts: resist climate change or protect fragile landscapes? 9/7/2023

New Arizona mines unearth new conflicts: resist climate change or protect fragile landscapes?

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Rod Eggert and Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how South32 is one of many prospective miners in the West in a position to capitalize on a national appetite for homegrown US sourced minerals.  However, in Arizona, It also would change a landscape that many prize as a unique biological mixing zone in forested mountain ranges like the Patagonias. Arizona’s Sky Islands form an archipelago of oases above the desert, alive with migratory birds, bats and big cats.  September 7, 2023.

The African Climate Summit – Averting the Climate Crisis 9/5/2023

The African Climate Summit – Averting the Climate Crisis

Payne Institute Research Associate Juliet Akamboe and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how climate change poses a significant threat to Africa, a continent already grappling with challenges including poverty and a lack of access to basic human needs like clean water, healthcare, education, jobs and electricity. Africa is already witnessing severe environmental consequences with changing rainfall patterns, severe droughts and extreme weather conditions, which are stalling socio-economic development.  The inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) taking place in Nairobi, this week is a great forum to discuss the role Africa can play in bridging the gap between the Global North and South in addressing the climate crisis.  September 5, 2023.

NIGER, URANIUM, AND THE COUP D’ETAT 9/1/2023

NIGER, URANIUM, AND THE COUP D’ETAT

Payne Institute ESG Researcher Baba Freeman writes about how the recent coup d’etat in Niger, a key supplier of uranium, has created some level of anxiety in the market and brought forward new questions for stakeholders across the industry and the West African sub-region. The event calls for a fresh look at the potential market impact and the way forward to resolving the current disputation in a manner that preserves Niger’s development agenda, minimizes political risk to investors, and aids the emergence of a more resilient global critical minerals supply chain.  September 1, 2023.

How Colorado’s oil and gas industry helps and hurts the economy 8/30/2023

How Colorado’s oil and gas industry helps and hurts the economy

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributes to this article about how economic benefits, like jobs and tax revenue, weigh against costs, like clean-up of environmental damage.  As Colorado’s oil and gas industry plans to drill hundreds of new wells along the Front Range in the coming years, residents want to know how the financial benefits and costs of those operations will affect their lives. The answer is complicated, and not all economists agree.  August 30, 2023.

Proposed West Africa-Europe Gas Pipelines Will Fail Without a Radical Shift in Thinking

PROPOSED WEST AFRICA-EUROPE GAS PIPELINES WILL FAIL WITHOUT A RADICAL SHIFT IN THINKING

Payne Institute ESG Researcher Baba Freeman writes about how the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 injected a renewed urgency into Western European countries’ energy security concerns and led to an increase in demand for non-Russian sources of oil and gas. Consequently, Europe is expected to take a larger share of future LNG supplies even as greenfield pipeline projects are being conceived to supply West African gas to Western Europe. These projects include the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline (TSGP) and the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline (NMGP) but may not be able to adequately meet these projects’ future obligations.  August 29, 2023. 

The need for balance in the regulation of the oil and natural gas industry 8/29/2023

The need for balance in the regulation of the oil and natural gas industry

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Jennifer Miskimins and Jim Crompton write about how to get the balance between environmental action and economic reality right, we all need more collaboration.   Over the past several years, Colorado has implemented precedent-setting regulations, from baseline groundwater testing and monitoring, to air regulations targeting methane leak detection and repair. But we still have a long way to go, and while it’s not an easy road for regulators, it’s crucial we stay the course.  August 29, 2023.  

Faster permits alone won’t build a U.S. clean-energy supply chain 8/25/2023

Faster permits alone won’t build a U.S. clean-energy supply chain

Payne Institute Responsible Gas Program Manager Simon Lomax, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Elizabeth Wilson write about a faster permitting process for U.S. mining projects may be just around the corner, thanks to regulatory reforms that were wrapped into the debt-ceiling compromise between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans. It’s a major breakthrough for climate action. Mines produce the raw materials used in electric cars, solar panels, power lines and other technologies that cut carbon emissions and slow the pace of climate change. A clean energy revolution is a minerals and mining revolution.  August 25, 2023.