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Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Role and Impact of ASM 2/6/2025

Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Role and Impact of ASM

Payne Institute Critical Minerals Program Manager Clarkson Kamurai, Student Researchers Isabel Guajardo and Grace Akinyi, Energy Finance Lab Director Brad Handler and Faculty Fellow Ian Lange write about how a significant increase in the supply of dozens of so-called “critical minerals” will be needed in the coming decades, for uses ranging from defense to no- and low-carbon energy. Mineral endowment and production capacity have therefore become crucial assets for developing economies. Yet one set of the stakeholders — artisanal and small-scale mining (collectively referred to here as ASM) — tends to be overlooked and may prove to be crucial.  February 6, 2025.

Payne Institute for Public Policy to convene on minimizing methane emissions

Payne Institute for Public Policy to convene on minimizing methane emissions

The Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines is pleased to announce two upcoming events focused on strategies to reduce methane emissions in the production and distribution of natural gas. These events will bring together experts from industry, academia and policy organizations to discuss emerging technologies, data science, market trends and regulatory developments in methane management.  January 31, 2025.
Managing Methane: Technology and Markets in an Evolving Regulatory LandscapeWebinar – February 12, 2025.
Accelerated Methane Reduction Symposium – March 6 and 7, 2025.

Bigger than the Berlin Airlift: How NATO’s natural gas shut down a key Russian pipeline 1/29/2025

Bigger than the Berlin Airlift: How NATO’s natural gas shut down a key Russian pipeline 

Payne Institute Director, Accelerated Methane Reduction Initiative Simon Lomax, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Deputy Director Greg Clough write about how on January 10, the US Treasury Department announced the most significant sanctions on Russian oil since 2014. And on January 1, over the objections of Moscow, a contract allowing for pipeline deliveries of Russian natural gas across Ukraine and into the European Union expired.  This is an astonishing achievement, both in technical and economic terms.  January 29, 2025.  

The Paradox of Trump’s Critical Minerals Crusade 1/28/2025

The Paradox of Trump’s Critical Minerals Crusade

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how kneecapping demand from clean energy is a funny way to boost supply.  While new clean energy projects won’t disappear overnight, the growth trajectory of the sector may be imperiled, which in turn means that incremental future demand for critical minerals in the United States has likely diminished.  January 28, 2025.

The A.I. – Energy Revolution – Fueled by the White House and Rare Earth Metals! (and China!) 1/28/2025

The A.I. – Energy Revolution – Fueled by the White House and Rare Earth Metals! (and China!)

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how a swath of the new US administration policies are being aimed at bolstering domestic production of critical minerals and strengthening the U.S. energy supply chain.  Much of that was done to reduce the U.S. foreign dependence on trade and boost energy security, but there’s a hidden beneficiary that investors should be paying close attention to: artificial intelligence (AI).  January 28, 2025.

New article in Science focuses on empowering Tribes through the just extraction of energy resources on their lands 1/24/2025

New article in Science focuses on empowering Tribes through the just extraction of energy resources on their lands

The Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) and group of Native American leaders write about how a rapidly changing energy system, increasing energy and critical minerals demand and related national security imperatives present Native American Tribes with a generational economic opportunity, according to a new Letter in Science.  January 24, 2025.  

The U.S. Military Risks Mineral Shortages in a U.S.-China War 1/23/2025

The U.S. Military Risks Mineral Shortages in a U.S.-China War

Payne Institute Fellow Gregory Wischer writes about how today, the U.S. military is at a greater risk of severe mineral shortages if a U.S.-China war were to unfold: the United States has limited mineral stockpiles; low domestic mineral production; and heavy mineral import reliance, including from its great power rival, China.  January 23, 2025.

Sibanye Stillwater’s lessons about US mining sufficiency 1/22/2025

Sibanye Stillwater’s lessons about US mining sufficiency

Payne Institute Student Researcher Annie Welch, Critical Minerals Program Manager Clarkson Kamurai, and Energy Finance Lab Director Brad Handler write about how the economic challenges for Sibanye Stillwater’s U.S. Platinum/Palladium mining operations. The analysis offers an illustration of the limitation of recent Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives (45X).  January 22, 2025.

US bets on new lithium extraction technology 1/21/2025

US bets on new lithium extraction technology

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributed to this article about how the US Department of Energy commits to $1.4 billion loan for small California firm. The progress in Arkansas demonstrates that the private sector already considers the Smackover region a good bet. Thus, it makes sense for the US to offer a loan to a project at the Salton Sea, where investors have been more hesitant.  January 21, 2025.

Mines professor assessing role of metals markets in energy transition 1/21/2025

Mines professor assessing role of metals markets in energy transition

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Ian Lange and Nicole Smith help lead the federal subcommittee to examine role of critical metals in transitional energy sources.  Lange sits on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Environment and Energy Markets Advisory Committee to define the critical minerals issues and help them understand where they might want to make suggestions or change things from a policy perspective.  January 21, 2024.  

Simple ways to save money and stay warm 1/17/2025

Simple ways to save money and stay warm

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Tabares-Velasco is featured in this article about how the arctic cold weekend will no doubt reveal the parts of your home that are too drafty, especially where you have a window that is not well sealed in the corners of the border, where you can see light coming through or you have a single pane that is basically just one glass, those windows lose a lot of heat.  January 17, 2025.

Electrification of the joint force: Challenges and opportunities for competition in the Pacific and Arctic theaters 1/17/2025

Electrification of the joint force: Challenges and opportunities for competition in the Pacific and Arctic theaters

Joshua D. Simulcik, Fabian E. Villalobos, and Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about how the US Department of Defense will have to find ways to expand the portfolio of its energy sources, continue to refine its supply chains and delivery mechanisms for energy services, improve efficiency across systems, and maintain a focus on costs to increase growing demand for energy services on the battlefield.  January 17, 2025.

A new frontier in the voluntary carbon market: Old, leaky oil wells 1/16/2025

A new frontier in the voluntary carbon market: Old, leaky oil wells

Payne Institute Energy Finance Lab Director Brad Handler contributed to this article about how over the last two years, developers have generated roughly 5 million carbon credits from cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells.  If disused wells remain unplugged — the term of art for closing them up with concrete and remediating the environment around them — they can leach toxic chemicals and spew planet-warming methane into the air.  January 16, 2025.

Global Temperature 1/14/2025

Global Temperature

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Nathan Lenssen contributed to this article about how earth’s temperature can vary significantly over relatively short distances.  However, within a small distance, temperature readings will remain remarkably consistent.  January 14, 2025.  

In a First, the E.P.A. Warns of ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Sludge Fertilizer 1/14/2025

In a First, the E.P.A. Warns of ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Sludge Fertilizer

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributed to this article about how levels of PFAS in sewage sludge used as fertilizer can pose risks that sometimes exceed safety thresholds “by several orders of magnitude,” the agency said.  Historically, he said, sludge had been applied at concentrations greater than the levels now deemed risky by the E.P.A.  January 14, 2025.  

California Wildfires: Rapid Monitoring of Flames and Damage from Space

California Wildfires: Rapid Monitoring of Flames and Damage from Space

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Researcher Associate Mikhail Zhizhin looks at how the impact of wildfires in California has been both devastating and transformative. Recent reports from major media outlets highlight the escalating scale of destruction, with the Palisade Fire near Malibu and the Pasadena Fire serving as stark examples.  January 13, 2024.