Please join GEMS-2024 Global Energy Meet and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Dr. Tamara Sparks, Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Research Associate, presenting Global Monitoring of Gas Flaring Using VIIRS Nightfire Satellite Remote Sensing at the GEMS-2024 Energy Meet on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA.

Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Greyson Buckingham, CEO and President, Disa Technologies, Inc., presenting a hybrid seminar titled High-Pressure Slurry Ablation (HPSA): An Innovative Liberation Technology for Improvement of Grade and Recovery in Mineral Processing on Thursday, April 4, 2024 in Golden, CO.  Pizza provided.

High-Pressure Slurry Ablation (HPSA) is Disa’s patented process for liberation of valuable minerals from gangue and other impurities. Originally developed for treating low-grade uranium waste rock, HPSA has also demonstrated promising ability to meet the needs of the mineral processing industry. HPSA’s unique application of energy through particle-to-particle collisions selectively liberates target minerals which can improve grade and recovery in flotation and size classification processes. Utilizing processed ore as its intrinsic grinding media and HPSA’s ability to improve recoveries and grades without overgrinding, HPSA is primed to revolutionize the mineral processing industry and significantly reduce costs associated with valuable mineral recovery.

Greyson Buckingham co-founded Disa Technologies, Inc. in 2018 and currently serves as the CEO & President. Greyson is a licensed attorney and a former Army Field Artillery officer (deployments to Kuwait and Iraq). Greyson received both his B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University and both his J.D. and MBA in Energy Management from the University of Wyoming.

Please join the Mines Engineering, Design, & Society (EDS) and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Dr. Cyrus Mody, Professor, History of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Maastricht University, presenting at hybrid seminar titled the There Is No Such Thing as the Oil Industry, and This Is a History of It on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 in Golden, CO.  

Oil companies come in many shapes and sizes, forms of ownership, business models, etc. But a significant number of them, especially the largest firms, have long had large operations in non-oil markets and technologies. The implications of these non-oil operations for current and future energy transitions are ambiguous, since they can be (and have been) used for greenwashing, but could also serve as a real bridge toward a less carbon-intensive economy. As this talk will show, oil firms’ non-oil ventures have a very long history that could be used to help clarify those ambiguities. Oil firms have been important players in nuclear technology for almost a century, for instance; and in solar for more than a half-century. In this talk I will examine oil’s non-oil ties in three periods: before the late 1960s; during the “long 1970s” from around 1968 to 1986, a period characterized by high oil prices, a sluggish world economy, and political challenges to Western oil firms; and the mergers, acquisitions, and hostile takeovers era of the 1980s and ’90s, when the price of oil was relatively low. I argue that oil firms’ attitudes toward technologies such as solar and nuclear power, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence were shaped by the price of oil, the relationship among the oil and finance industries and the state, and changes in the perceived importance of a science or engineering degree as a prerequisite for promotion.

Cyrus Mody is Professor of the History of Science, Technology, and Innovation at Maastricht University and director of the Maastricht University science and technology studies research program. He is the author of three monographs with MIT Press, most recently The Squares: US Physical and Engineering Scientists in the Long 1970s (2022), and is a former editor of the journal Engineering Studies. His talk is based on the Dutch Research Council-funded project Managing Scarcity and Sustainability 2 (https://managingscarcity.com/), of which he is the PI; he is also one of four co-PIs of the European Research Council-funded NanoBubbles project (https://nanobubbles.hypotheses.org/).

Please join Mines Innov8x, DARPA, and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines for a hybrid Supply Demand Challenge framing session on Friday, February 23, 2024.

Join us for a crucial Framing Session,where we dive into the realm of Critical Minerals with the esteemed Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The session will be conducted both in-person at Petroleum Hall and virtually via Zoom. Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to the discussion.Zoom link will be available for remote participation. Be there to make a difference! Email franklin@mines.edu with any questions or accommodations requests.

Please join the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the Sustainable Development Strategies Group, and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dr. Roderick Eggert and Dr. Fengping Gao, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, presenting a hybrid seminar titled Clean Energy Minerals and Their Supply Chains: Perspectives on the Impacts of Environmental Regulations, Trade Policies, and Climate and Clean Energy Legislation on Friday, February 9 in Denver.

Professors Gao and Eggert will present perspectives that reflect the intersection of trade, environmental law, economics, and clean energy minerals. Their presentations will address uses of critical minerals, the geography of production and the restructuring of global supply chains.

The panel discussion by Professors Gao and Eggert will be moderated by Cassie Boggs, an alumnus of the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, and a mining lawyer with over 40 years experience in domestic and international mining issues.

Professor Fengpin Gao is an alumnus of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and is currently a professor at the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. He serves as the chair of the Department of International Trade and Economy and is co-director of the Mining Environment Safety Management Doctoral Program. Additionally, he is Co-Chair of the China RE Society Academic Annual Conference for the Environment, Economics, and Industry Policy sub-committee. Prof. Gao has received numerous honors for his research in the interconnection field of minerals, environmental law, trade, and economics. Besides his publications with top journals, he was covered by major national press and international news sources.

Dr. Roderick Eggert is an economist and faculty member at Colorado School of Mines, where he has been on the faculty since 1986. He holds the Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics. Since 2013, he has been Deputy Director of the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, a research consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate innovation that creates technological options for assuring supply chains of those materials essential for the energy transitions. Professor Eggert has testified on mineral issues before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Canadian House of Commons and the European Parliament. 

Please join the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Ernest Scheyder, Senior Correspondent, Reuters, for a book launch for the newly released title The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Golden.  Free Pizza lunch will be served.  Free copy of book (limited copies, first come, first served).

A new economic war for critical minerals has begun, and The War Below is an urgent dispatch from its front lines. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access to sites around the globe has allowed him to gain unparalleled insights into a future without fossil fuels.

Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent for Reuters, covering the green energy transition and the minerals that undergird it. He previously covered the US shale oil revolution, politics, and the environment, and held roles at the Associated Press and the Bangor Daily News. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine and Columbia Journalism School. Visit his website at ErnestScheyder.com.

Please join Orphan & Idle Wells Colorado and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines as we welcome Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler, presenting Carbon Credits, Registries, and Markets: A Comprehensive Guide for the Energy Industry on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Denver, CO.  

OVERVIEW:

Join us at the Orphan & Idle Wells Colorado Conference 2024, where we continue to confront the critical environmental, logistical, and financial challenges posed by over 3.7 million abandoned oil and gas wells, including approximately 130,000 orphan wells. These wells, lacking responsible ownership, pose severe risks by leaking oil and toxic chemicals, endangering water sources, contributing to air pollution, and emitting methane, causing environmental hazards and economic burdens on communities and governments.

Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), significant steps have been taken with a US$4.7bn fund to address the environmental impacts of these wells. In synergy with the DOE’s Undocumented Orphaned Well Program, these efforts aim at ecological restoration, economic growth, and job creation. This event is an extension of our well-received Orphan and Idle Wells series, launched in Texas in October 2023 and successfully started a much-needed dialogue on decarbonizing oil and gas operations in the Lone Star State.

WHY COLORADO?

We chose Colorado because of its position as a leader in oil and gas regulation, industry best practices, and CCUS and geothermal technologies. This pivotal conference will delve into the complexities surrounding orphan wells and 20,000 low-producing wells that are at risk of becoming orphan wells in Colorado. We are excited to feature a speaker faculty of esteemed subject matter experts from state and federal agencies, leading energy companies, academia, and experts in well decommissioning and monitoring.

The event will spotlight initiatives and updates on:

Financial Strategies for Well Abandonment and CCUS
Environmental Compliance and Sustainable Practices
Technological Advancements in Well Plugging and Remediation
Stakeholder Collaboration and Engagement at the federal, state and industry level
Community and Public Health Priorities
CCUS Integration for Carbon-Neutral Assets
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Regulatory Frameworks and Policy Advocacy
Balancing Financial, Environmental, and Community Goals
Innovation and Sustainability in the Energy Industry

The Orphan & Idle Wells Colorado Conference is your opportunity to be at the forefront of this critical environmental and economic challenge. For more information please contact Zia Durrani on zia.durrani@energyconferencenetwork.com.