Commentary Series - Payne Institute for Public Policy

Corporate ESG Commitments are Gaining Popularity. Can They be Trusted?

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Payne Institute Program Manager Jordy Lee, and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about the growing concerns about the long-term sustainability of many industries have led to big changes in approaches to corporate strategies and management. Pressure from financiers is adding to the momentum. Concerns about climate related financial risks and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, have helped create demand from bankers for companies to show that they are actively working towards global climate goals. May 9, 2022.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Geothermal Investment 4/29/2022

How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Geothermal Investment

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Sebnem Düzgün, Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how in the midst of the global energy transition, geothermal operations promise to provide stable, renewable energy, so why aren’t more investors taking the bait? One of the major roadblocks for geothermal investment is the high level of uncertainty that accompanies the subsurface resource. April 29, 2022.

A Critical Minerals Policy Option for the U.S. 4/19/2022

A Critical Minerals Policy Option for the U.S.

Payne Institute Research Associate Baba Freeman writes about how the U.S.’s current policies may be insufficient to meet its strategic goal of supply chain resilience and unfettered access to critical minerals needed for its economic growth and military deterrence purposes. He proposes an additional policy approach to further enrich ongoing discussions about this very important and strategic sector. April 19, 2022.

Fireside Chats with Gaia 4/4/2022

Fireside Chats with Gaia

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow James Crompton wrote this book about how public health pandemics and Climate Change cannot be ignored. Economic recessions of very large magnitude can’t be ignored either. But the one I want to focus on in this article is the so-called Energy Transition. Environmentalist are talking about an energy transition to a new Green Energy world, net-neutral-carbon-zero world to mitigate against the impacts of Climate Change and predict that we don’t have much time to get there. April 4, 2022.

The U.S. Can Help Heat Europe 3/10/2022

The U.S. Can Help Heat Europe

Payne Institute Program Manager Brad Handler and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to calls for the U.S. to make a war time expansion of its hydrocarbon production. The idea is to help ease prices and to support energy security and energy diversification for Europe. Certainly, some of these calls belie a narrow commercial self-interest, while others are directed at supporting our allies. Importantly, and despite some of the rhetoric, the U.S. government isn’t standing in the way of industry growth. Still, the government can and should help ease the industry’s path to higher LNG production to help support European energy—and in particular, heating. March 10, 2022.

Lebanon Energy Crisis: Time to Reform 3/7/2022

Lebanon Energy Crisis: Time to Reform

Payne Institute Fellow Jamal Saghir, Communications Specialist Brooke Bowser, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the attention of the world’s energy sector is clearly focused on Russia and Ukraine, but the ongoing crisis in Lebanon warrants our collective attention. The situation is horrifying. Lebanon is being battered by a confluence of crises engulfing national security, politics and government, integrity in public office, the economy and banking sector, social unrest, energy instability and environmental degradation. Each is feeding off the others to create a storm rooted in Lebanon’s failed economic, social, environmental policies. March 7, 2022.

Oil Industry Exits Point to Medium Term Supply Challenges and Incremental Renewable Investment 3/3/2022

Oil Industry Exits Point to Medium Term Supply Challenges and Incremental Renewable Investment

Payne Institute Program Manager, Sustainable Finance Lab, and Researcher Brad Handler looks at the energy majors’ exit from Russian relationships seems likely to put pressure on peers and the major Western service companies to follow suit. Such a broad exit points to eventual, and enduring declines in Russian oil production as well as lower Russian gas exports. Higher resulting oil and gas prices should further incentivize clean energy investments in the OECD and beyond. March 3, 2022.

Satellite Data Provides Insights about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine 3/2/2022

Satellite Data Provides Insights about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The Payne Institute’s Earth Observation Group (EOG) can capture a unique view of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine using satellite data provided by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard a Joint Polar Satellite System co-operated by NOAA and NASA. The EOG’s VIIRS Nighttime Lights (VNL) product can display nighttime lights while the group’s VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) product can detect thermal anomalies on the Earth’s surface. March 2, 2022.

Resource Conflict in the Energy Transition 2/21/2022

Resource Conflict in the Energy Transition

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Deputy Director Gregory Clough, Alicia Polo y La Borda Cavero, Director Morgan Bazilian, Henry Gustavo Polanco Cornejo, and Eliseo Zeballos Zeballos write about how energy transitions occurring globally—towards low-carbon technologies, increased electrification, and electric vehicles and battery storage capacity—will also produce significant challenges in resource-rich areas. The demand for a varied set of mineral resources and metals that are required for renewable energy technologies such as solar panels and batteries is set to grow at an unprecedented scale. Many of the countries with the largest potentials for these minerals are in emerging and developing economies that face capacity and governance challenges. February 21, 2022.
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Does Oil Production Affect Government Effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa? 1/31/2022

Payne Institute Commentary – Does Oil Production Affect Government Effectiveness in SSA

Payne Institute Research Associate Baba Freeman writes about how the directional impact of oil revenues on the performance of governments in sub–Saharan African countries. As a proxy for governance/government performance, this study uses scores from publicly available third-party studies for the following measures, Doing Business, Elite Factionalization, State Legitimacy, Public Services, Inequality, Civil Liberties, Political Rights and Group Grievance. January 31, 2022.

Critical Minerals and the Legacy Mine Environment: A Proposed Data Collection Program to Help Address the U.S. Critical Minerals Gap 12/9/2021

Critical Minerals and the Legacy Mine Environment: A Proposed Data Collection Program to Help Address the U.S. Critical Minerals Gap

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Elizabeth Holley, Robin Bullock, Priscilla Nelson, Erik Spiller, and Fellow Sara Hastings-Simon write about how the United States is in the midst of a robust national debate regarding supply chains for the critical minerals needed to facilitate, support and drive the clean energy economy, and to anchor national security. The issue is well-categorized in the recent White House 100-Day Task Force Report under EO 14017. As with most energy and resource topics, opinions vary widely – buy from trusted allies and foreign sources, source via recycling, accelerate U.S. mineral exploration, process from unconventional feedstocks (coal and coal ash), and search for more readily available alternatives. Ultimately, we will likely need all of these options, operating simultaneously, to provide the minerals and materials necessary to ensure national and economic security, generate jobs, and stimulate economic growth. We propose a rapid assessment of an additional, often overlooked resource category: mining waste from approximately 500,000 legacy and abandoned sites scattered throughout the country. December 9, 2021.

Africa ‘Climate Infrastructure Trap’ in Energy and Transport Sectors 12/7/2021

Africa ‘Climate Infrastructure Trap’ in Energy and Transport Sectors

Payne Institute Fellow Jamal Saghir, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, and Nitin Jain write about how Africa is particularly vulnerable to these extreme impacts of climate change. It is crucial that African climate adaptation finances increase substantially and investments in infrastructure are sustainable and resilient. This requires a fundamental systemic transformation. December 7, 2021.

Ending Gas Flaring and Powering a Sustainable Economy of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq 11/24/2021

Ending Gas Flaring and Powering a Sustainable Economy of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Payne Institute Fellow Peri-Khan Aqrawi-Whitcomb writes about how the UN Environment Programme has ranked Iraq (including the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI)), as the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of climate change, such as water scarcity, desertification and extreme weather variability such as droughts, flooding, and storms. Some regions of Iraq are even expected to become uninhabitable in the coming decades. Years of conflict, war, poor governance, corruption and industrial pollution, have in addition led to the country’s massive environmental decline. November 24, 2021.

Big Oil and the Energy Transition 11/16/2021

Big Oil and the Energy Transition

Payne Institute Communications Associate Brooke Bowser, Fellow Dolf Gielen, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how climate pledges are on the rise as businesses and governments seek to boost their public images and support the environment. Oil and gas, which make up nearly 55% of global energy consumption, is under particular pressure to reduce emissions. November 16, 2021.

A Geothermal Transition 11/15/2021

A Geothermal Transition

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron and Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about how the global energy sector is changing rapidly, and in myriad ways. Geothermal energy is poised to play an important role going forward. While the technology has been in place for many decades, new innovations are opening up possibilities for the expansion of geothermal energy production into areas beyond traditional geothermal hotspots (e.g., volcanoes). Geothermal also has an important benefit among renewable energy technologies: it has considerable overlap of required data and skill sets with the oil and gas industry¬—this has big implications for ensuring so called just transitions. November 15, 2021.

Improving Satellite Monitoring of Methane Emissions 11/9/2021

Improving Satellite Monitoring of Methane Emissions – Data science is fundamental to better emissions tracking

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Dorit Hammerling, Researcher William Daniels, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Communications Associate Brooke Bowser write about how reducing methane emissions is a focus of addressing climate change. To do so effectively requires a robust monitoring and reporting system. Using data science, researchers at the Payne Institute are able to reduce the limitations of existing satellite data by providing localized estimations of methane fields to help fill the gaps of current monitoring. November 9, 2021.

Beirut Power: Trends and Turning Points 10/14/2021

Beirut Power: Trends and Turning Points

Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, Earth Observation Group Senior Research Associate Christopher Elvidge and Research Associate Feng-Chi, Hsu write about how in Beirut, it plunged the 2.4 million-person city into darkness this weekend. The Lebanese power grid shut down on Saturday due to depleted fuel resources, which comes after months of economic crisis in the country. October 14, 2021.

Industry 4.0: Additive Manufacturing 10/4/2021

Industry 4.0: Additive Manufacturing

Colorado School of Mines Professor Craig Brice, Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian, and Brooke Bowser write about how the manufacturing industry is adopting new technologies and practices in order to remain competitive in today’s growing trend of digitalization. Similar to the invention of the steam engine or the adoption of the assembly line, such changes have the potential to change our economies. Advances in additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, are essential to what some are describing as The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0. October 4, 2021.

CCUS Momentum Grows Despite Midstream Challenges 9/22/2021

CCUS Momentum Grows Despite Midstream Challenges

Payne Institute Program Manager Laura Singer, Brooke Bowser, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology has again become popular in discussions on how to combat climate change, but the associated midstream infrastructure, like pipelines, necessary to support an energy transition remains underdeveloped and often overlooked. In addition to CO2, pipelines will also play a vital role in transporting other gases and liquids important for the energy transition from hydrogen to renewable gas. September 22, 2021.

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage: What it is and Why it’s Part of a Comprehensive Climate Solution 9/13/2021

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage: What it is and Why it’s Part of a Comprehensive Climate Solution

Payne Institute Senior Research Associate and Research Assistant Professor Greer Gosnell and Program Manager Laura Singer write about how emphasis on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) remains alive and well, thanks to rare bipartisan support for the technology that hopes to save millions of jobs in the industrial sector—which is responsible for 25% of U.S. emissions—and hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation and shipping. September 13, 2021.

Consolidating 9/9/2021

Consolidating

Payne Institute Fellow Brad Handler has prepared a quarterly report on how U.S. public oil and natural gas (O&G) companies continue to try to win back investors by spending less of their cash flow, the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) marked a surge in these companies also turning to acquisitions to position themselves for longer term efficient production. The implications of industry consolidation for spending and employment can be unclear. September 9, 2021.

Lights of a City Under Siege – Disruption to Kandahar Airport Lights Increases as the Taliban Entered the City 8/25/2021

Lights of a City Under Siege – Disruption to Kandahar Airport Lights Increases as the Taliban Entered the City

Payne Institute Communications Associate Brooke Bowser, Earth Observation Group Senior Research Associate Christopher Elvidge, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan has been impacted as U.S. troops began their withdrawal from a 20-year conflict, and the Taliban steadily gained more ground in the city. August 25, 2021.

Exploring Carbon Retirement Portfolios 7/30/2021

Exploring Carbon Retirement Portfolios

Payne Institute Fellow Brad Handler and Morgan Bazilian write a commentary on there are new financial instruments that are being designed and brought into the fight against climate change. One such potential instrument is a Carbon Retirement Portfolio (CRP), a collection of carbon-emitting assets, including oil & gas (O&G) producing wells and coal-fired power plants (coal plants). A CRP would buy these assets with the commitment to retire them more quickly than their business-as-usual case. Thus, CRPs can be a vehicle to accelerate a country or region’s reduction of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. July 30, 2021.

Innovators and the Development of Mini-Mills for Steel Recycling: Lessons for the Development of a Circular Economy from the Steel Industry 7/23/2021

Innovators and the Development of Mini-Mills for Steel Recycling: Lessons for the Development of a Circular Economy from the Steel Industry

Payne Institute Student Researcher McKenzie Jones and Fellow Sara Hastings-Simon write about how as the global population grows and societies become increasingly industrialized, the demand for resources is outpacing the capacity for sustainable production. Meeting this growing demand will require a change to the current linear approach to resource use – from one where resources are used and then discarded as waste to a more “circular economy” model. A circular economy combines an environmental and economic outlook on resources with the goal to dramatically reduce the new resources needed. Systems would be redesigned to reduce overall material needs, starting from design that enables items to be repaired and reused, requiring new value chains and business models. July 23, 2021.

Tackling Energy Poverty and Climate Change through Sustainable Power Generation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq 6/9/2021

Tackling Energy Poverty and Climate Change through Sustainable Power Generation in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Payne Institute Fellow Peri-Khan Aqrawi-Whitcomb and Prsha Abubakr Othman write about how the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) continues to tackle a myriad of socio-economic and political issues, intensified by a global crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These socio-economic and political setbacks are amplified by energy poverty and climate change. June 9, 2021.