Energy Security & Resilience

Global research and analysis on energy risks ranging from climate change to resource competition to population and demand growth to governance and infrastructure investment

Nearly two billion people around the world live in areas and regions that suffer from conflict violence and instability. As we design new energy systems in the developing world, there are energy security and resilience challenges unique to each local environment. This is also true in developed nations that are now going through energy transitions and are creating infrastructure with new renewable energy options. The optimal electrification mix is sensitive to each local environment.

The Payne Institute is recognizing these sensitivities by connecting the breadth of engineering experience across the energy system at the Colorado School of Mines with the public policy world making decisions on energy infrastructure. By taking a comprehensive look at environmental, economic, political and other elements in each local environment, The Payne Institute is supporting the design and creation of secure and resilient energy systems throughout the globe.

NEWS

America’s Data Center Boom Must Not Depend on Chinese Batteries 3/6/2026

America’s Data Center Boom Must Not Depend on Chinese Batteries

Jesse R. Edmondson and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the United States must build its own domestic battery supply chain to support the AI data center boom and reduce reliance on Chinese energy storage technologies. March 6, 2026.

War in the Middle East pushes diesel prices up — other costs will likely follow 3/6/2026

War in the Middle East pushes diesel prices up — other costs will likely follow

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this podcast discussing one very specific economic impact of war in the Middle East: Diesel fuel just topped $4 a gallon, and it’s likely to get even more expensive. Even if you don’t drive a diesel truck, this price spike is going to hit you, too. March 6, 2026.

The First 36 Hours of War Consumed Over 3,000 U.S.-Israeli Munitions

Macdonald Amoah, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how replenishing stockpiles depends on vulnerable critical mineral chains. The expended munitions, and the minerals required to build them, are a defense-industrial problem for the West, and especially the United States. March 5, 2026.

Conflict monitoring with VIIRS Nightfire: the war in Ukraine 3/2/2026

Conflict monitoring with VIIRS Nightfire: the war in Ukraine

Merlijn I. Dingemanse, Earth Observation Group Researcher Associate Mikhail Zhizhin and Daniele Cerra write about how leveraging the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite’s Nightfire product, we extract signals of conflict across Ukraine, tracking the status of heavy industry, delineating the frontline, and detecting urban combat. March 2, 2026.

America’s Tech Ambitions Outrunning Industrial Realities 2/25/2026

America’s Tech Ambitions Outrunning Industrial Realities

Macdonald Amoah, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how American reindustrialization is constrained by structural weaknesses in three physical pillars: energy capacity, industrial supply chains, and technical workforce depth. February 25, 2025.

Can Project Vault fortify the US industrial base against mineral chokepoints?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Lt. Col. Jahara “FRANKY” Matisek write about how Beijing is systematically using its near-total control over a range of critical materials to create chokepoints that directly impact the US defense industrial base. February 25, 2026.

Variety is Not Enough. Why Can Diversification No Longer Guarantee Energy Security? 2/20/2026

Variety is Not Enough. Why Can Diversification No Longer Guarantee Energy Security?

Payne Institute Fellow Andrei Covatariu and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how energy has, once again, been discussed less as a commodity and more as a component of industrial and geopolitical power. In this environment, the meaning of energy security extends beyond fuel diversification to encompass broader questions of economic resilience and systemic stability. February 20, 2026.

How to Supercharge the US Military’s Arsenal 2/11/2026

How to Supercharge the US Military’s Arsenal

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how with more capital-sensitive procurement policies, deeper AI integration, and smoother allied co-production, the US defense industrial base can make a serious comeback. February 11, 2026.

Jointly rebuilding the Australian-US defence industrial base 2/11/2026

Jointly rebuilding the Australian-US defence industrial base

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how the United States’ 2026 National Defense Strategy may give Australia the impetus for accelerating its shift towards industrial sovereignty and deeper strategic economic integration with the US. But this requires more than policy alignment; it demands a concrete industrial blueprint for converting Australia’s geographic and geological advantages into tangible, shared industrial power. February 11, 2026.

Logistics Left of Boom: Understanding Adversary Threats to the Defense Industrial Base Ahead of Conflict 2/6/2026

Logistics Left of Boom: Understanding Adversary Threats to the Defense Industrial Base Ahead of Conflict

Macdonald Amoah, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how much of today’s military logistics debate focuses on what happens after production: moving equipment, munitions, and spare parts through contested domains once a crisis begins. But true logistics does not begin at the rail station, seaport, or airport; it begins months or years earlier in what might best be described as a prelogistics phase—in the mines, refineries, and factories that create military power in the first place. February 6, 2026.

Read All News

For more information about the Energy Security & Resilience Research Area at the Payne Institute for Public Policy, please contact our Deputy Director, Gregory Clough, at gclough@mines.edu.