Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we host an expert panel for a hybrid seminar discussing Critical Minerals from Mine Wastes – Legacy Mine Waste as an Opportunity for Restoration and Remining Projects on Thursday, April 10, 2025 in Golden, CO.

As the US focuses on domestic mineral supply chains, mine wastes are receiving increasing attention as one potential source of critical minerals. Panelists will discuss the challenges and opportunities around critical mineral production from mine tailings, mine waters, and other mine waste types. In addition to technical R&D, the panel will address the broader context of markets and policy, in particular the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Ty Churchwell, Trout Unlimited – Government Affairs Program, Mining Coordinator
Ty is the Mining Coordinator for Trout Unlimited (TU), America’s largest and oldest river and public land conservation organization based in DC. In his capacity, Ty oversees TU’s mining policy portfolio to include, Good Samaritan law implementation, critical minerals policy development and 1872 Mining Law reform. As a resident of Durango, Colorado, Ty also coordinates the Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site in San Juan County, Colorado.

Stephen D’Esposito, President & CEO, Regeneration | President & CEO, RESOLVE
Stephen D’Esposito is founder, President and CEO of Regeneration a B-Corp start-up that produces biodiversity, community, and climate positive minerals for the energy transition, green tech, and sustainable brands through remining, reprocessing, and restoration.

He also leads RESOLVE, a non-governmental organization that works with business, government, foundation, and NGO and community leaders to forge sustainable solutions to critical social, health, and environmental challenges.

He chairs the board of Nightjar, a conservation technology startup. It’s first produce TrailGuard AI, as named by TIME as one of the best inventions of 2023.

Elizabeth Holley, Associate Professor of Mining Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Dr. Elizabeth Holley has worked in mineral exploration around the world. She is an Associate Professor at Colorado School of Mines and a fellow of the Payne Institute. She leads the Responsible Critical Minerals Initiative funded by the National Science Foundation and serves as the site director for the Industry-University Cooperative Research Center to Advance the Science of Exploration through Reclamation in Mining.

Cecilia Lazo-Sköld, Regeneration, Senior Director for Site Innovation
Cecilia Lazo-Sköld is the Senior Director for Site Innovation at Regeneration Enterprises, a public-benefit company that remines and restores legacy mining sites. She is a geochemist/environmental engineer, currently working on metal recovery from mine waste and waste repurpose. Lazo-Sköld previously worked at Rio Tinto Iron Ore as a technical expert advising different assets including copper operations in Mongolia, diamond and uranium operations in Australia, and lithium operations in Serbia. Prior to that, she worked on the cleanup of Superfund and abandoned mine sites in North America. She started her career working on nuclear waste disposal in Sweden. Lazo-Sköld received a B.S. in chemistry from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and an M.S. in environmental science and engineering from the Colorado School of Mines (1999).

Molly Morgan, PhD candidate in Geology, Colorado School of Mines
Molly Morgan is a PhD candidate in Geology at the Colorado School of Mines under the advisement of Dr. Elizabeth Holley. Her research focuses on copper recovery and non-traditional stable isotope dynamics in lime-treated acid mine drainage. She also explores how federal Good Samaritan legislation could shape future strategies for managing abandoned and legacy mine sites and advancing mineral-focused resource recovery.

MODERATOR:

Brad Handler, Program Director, Energy Finance Lab, Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines
Brad Handler is the Program Director of the Energy Finance Lab at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. The EFL’s research focuses on developing financial mechanisms and using markets to aid in decarbonization, with an emphasis on extractive industries. Previously, he was an equity research analyst in the Oil & Gas sector at investment banks including Jefferies and Credit Suisse.

Please join Gordon Research Conference as they welcome Payne Institute Low Carbon Energy Technologies Program Manager Anna Littlefield, presenting Improving Geochemical Risk Assessment in CCS Projects: A Statistical Modeling Approach at the Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Conference in Ventura, California from April 6-11, 2025.

The Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes a diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.

Please join the Benchmark Mineral Intelligence as they welcome Dr. Morgan Bazilian presenting Policy Outlook at the Benchmark Summit 2025 – Toronto on Monday, March 3, 2025.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is delighted to announce the Benchmark Summit 2025 in Toronto, Canada on Monday 3rd March.

Since 2015, the Benchmark World Tour has been the foremost global forum for financing the energy transition. Now rebranded as the Summit, this event has been timed to align with other meetings in Toronto that will ensure our audience contains leaders from across finance, policy and stakeholders from across the wider energy transition.

Tickets for this free, one-day seminar from Team Benchmark will sell out fast. 

Please join Colorado School of Mines Faculty Senate as they welcome Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins presenting Chasing Forever Chemicals Forever? The Imminent Challenges of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances in the Environment on Tuesday, March 4, 2025 in Golden, CO.

Growing concerns about human exposure to perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), two members of the broad family of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), have recently led to significant public and regulatory interest. However, society’s path forward is not immediately evident for these chemicals, particularly if they are broadly defined. Even when narrowly defined, significant challenges are evident for developing PFAS treatment technologies, mainly due to both their recalcitrance and their chemical complexity. Finally, the complexity of the routes of human exposure to PFASs ensure that PFASs are likely to be a dominant environmental and public health challenge for years to come. In this overview, these challenges will be discussed in the context of characterizing PFASs in the environment, evaluating human exposures to PFASs, and developing treatment technologies. Further, the need for a broader societal conversation on PFASs will be discussed.

Christopher P. Higgins is an environmental chemist at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Higgins’ received his A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard University, and graduate degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He joined Mines in 2009, attaining the title of University Distinguished Professor in 2022. He was the recipient of the 2019 Huber Prize in Civil Engineering Research awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was the lead Principal Investigator for the 2020 Environmental Restoration Project of the Year for the U.S. DoD’s Strategic Environmental Research & Development Program. His research focuses on the movement of contaminants in the environment. In particular, he studies chemical fate and transport in natural and engineered systems, with a focus on poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Dr. Higgins has authored over 175 peer-reviewed publications. His research has been supported by NSF, NIH, EPA, USDA, and the DoD.

Please join the Atlantic Council as they welcome Dr. Morgan Bazilian presenting on a hybrid seminar Geothermal: Unlocking America’s Untapped Energy Potential on Thursday, February 20, 2025.

On Thursday, February 20 at 10:00 a.m. ET, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center will host a discussion on geothermal energy advancements and policy pathways. This event is part of a broader initiative supported by ClearPath to promote the development and deployment of enhanced geothermal systems across the United States.

Geothermal energy, a high-capacity, clean, and abundant domestic resource, can play a pivotal role in fortifying US energy security and resilience. As the administration champions energy dominance, geothermal offers an opportunity to harness oil and gas sector expertise to unlock its full potential. Its diverse applications—powering data centers, artificial intelligence infrastructure, military bases, and other high-demand sectors—position it as a cornerstone of the United States’ diversified energy future.

This event will focus on overcoming these barriers and exploring next-generation geothermal technologies to drive energy security and achieve critical economic and environmental goals.

This discussion will take place live at the Atlantic Council headquarters and will be broadcast over Zoom, YouTube, X, and Facebook. To receive the event information, please register using the form on this page.

Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Fellow Trisha Curtis with Director Morgan Bazilian on a hybrid seminar discussing Energy Security, China, Inflation, and Oil Prices on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Golden, CO.  Free lunch will be provided.  

Trisha Curtis, President and CEO of PetroNerds, LLC

Trisha Curtis is the President and CEO of PetroNerds, LLC. She founded the company and began running it out of Denver, Colorado in 2016. She was formerly the Director of Research, Upstream and Midstream, at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) in Washington, DC. Since 2010, she has led extensive research efforts and major consulting projects and authored several reports on the North American upstream and midstream markets for government agencies, global think tanks, and corporations.

She was also the Manager for Strategy and Analytics at Anschutz Exploration in Denver, Colorado from 2019 to 2020.

At PetroNerds, Ms. Curtis leads research, advising and consulting services. She is a macroeconomist with an expertise in US shale markets, geopolitics, and China. She is globally recognized for her knowledge of US shale and has been asked to speak and present at several academic, industry, and investor forums including OPEC in Vienna, SPE in Bahrain, IEF in Saudi Arabia, Stanford University, Chatham House, Oxford University, Denver University, and Colorado School of Mines. 

She is also the host of the PetroNerds Podcast.

Trisha provides clients with in-depth analysis of the US and world economy, geopolitics, global oil and gas markets, and the US shale industry. She synthesizes this into relevant, actionable, and forecastable information integral to her clients and their respective businesses and needs.

She spearheaded EPRINC’s projects with Department of Energy for the Quadrennial Energy Review, evaluating future North American crude oil production volumes and midstream transportation options through 2030. She worked extensively with US and Canadian railroads in their efforts to begin moving Bakken crude, by rail, to the East Coast. Trisha also authored multiple reports on US shale and completions in US shale with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Her work for Department of Defense has focused extensively on China, energy, and US Shale.

Ms. Curtis is the Economist for the American Energy Institute, an Energy Fellow with the Common Sense Institute in Colorado, a Board Member at the Denver Earth Resources Library, and a Research Associate at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), a recognized independent center of Oxford University. She is also a Fellow at Colorado School of Mine’s Payne Institute.

Ms. Curtis completed her undergraduate work at Regis University in Denver, Colorado where she double majored in Economics and Politics, minored in Criminology, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She has a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the London School of Economics in International Political Economy and wrote her MSc Dissertation on Chinese National Oil Companies. As an undergraduate, she also worked as a staff assistant in UK Parliament for John Grogan, Selby Constituency. Raised in northwest Colorado and southwest Wyoming, she grew up around pump jacks and has worked on oil and gas sites in Colorado and Wyoming with her father.

Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Bob Stout, Senior Fellow at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, Mike Smith, Manager for Public Policy & Government Affairs, Devon Energy, and Will Foiles, Co-Founder, CEO of Project Canary, presenting a webinar titled Managing Methane: Technology and Markets in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.

As methane management enters a new phase, this webinar will explore how evolving regulations, shifting stakeholder expectations, and advancements in measurement technologies are shaping the landscape. Our expert panel will examine how energy producers can harness emissions data to optimize their operations and manage risks.

Bob Stout –

Following nearly three decades in global legal, compliance and public affairs leadership roles at bp, Bob advises a variety of businesses, universities and nonprofits on the development and implementation of effective and enduring policies to promote secure, affordable and lower emissions energy solutions. For over a decade, he has advocated for policies to drive down GHG emissions across natural gas supply chains by incentivizing the use of cost-effective advanced technologies for emissions detection, measurement and mitigation. Bob served on the Coordinating Subcommittee for the National Petroleum Council’s study on reducing GHG emissions from the U.S. natural gas supply chain and currently serves as a senior advisor to Coefficient and the Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council (https://www.dgccouncil.com/), the Duke Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability (https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/project/energy-pathways-usa), the Energy Emissions Modeling & Data Lab at UT Austin (https://www.eemdl.utexas.edu/), Future 500 (https://www.future500.org/), and the Harvard Law School Environmental & Energy Law Program (https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/).

Mike Smith – 

Mike Smith is a Manager for Public Policy & Government Affairs at Devon Energy, engaging with internal and external stakeholders on corporate, state, and federal regulatory and policy issues and voluntary emission reduction initiatives. After starting his career at the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, Mike worked for both midstream and upstream oil and gas operators in various capacities including environmental compliance, air permitting, and policy. Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Natural Resources from Kansas State University, and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Will Foiles –

Will Foiles is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Project Canary, the leading emissions data platform for energy companies. 

Prior to founding Project Canary, Will built expertise in financial analysis, energy markets, and data-driven solutions through roles at Bloomberg LP, where he focused on equity valuation and data acquisition projects, and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. His background in finance, energy, and advanced data methodologies underpins Project Canary’s innovation in emissions management technology.

Will holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MS in Environment and Resources from Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability, an MS in Finance from Villanova School of Business, and a BBA in Real Estate from The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Fellow Todd Moss, Executive Director, Energy for Growth Hub and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, presenting a hybrid seminar titled Climate & Energy in Africa: What We Get Wrong on Monday, February 24, 2025 in Golden, CO.

The world committed to ending global energy poverty by 2030. But we keep making 5 big mistakes that risk leaving one quarter of humanity behind.

Todd Moss is executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub and a nonresident fellow at Mines’ Payne Institute, Rice’s Baker Institute, and the Center for Global Development. Todd previously served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and has worked at Georgetown, LSE, and the World Bank. His Substack is Eat More Electrons.

Please join Colorado School of Mines as they welcome Payne Institute Deputy Director Greg Clough presenting the Keynote titled How to Convene Impactful Events at Universities on Friday, February 7, 2025 in Golden, CO.

Join your colleagues for a workshop. Connect with peers, learn from leaders, and grow as a professional at this exciting workshop hosted at Colorado School of Mines.