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Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Two Years Late and Still Crazy 11/29/2023

Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Two Years Late and Still Crazy

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow John Speer contributed to this article about how after years of delays, Tesla will livestream its Cybertruck delivery event Thursday. Car experts still can’t believe it’s trying to mass-produce a vehicle with such a challenging design.  One theme of the Cybertruck’s off-kilter aesthetic is simplicity—straight lines, bare surfaces, sharp corners. Taking that approach actually makes building the thing a lot more complex.  November 29, 2023.

Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023 11/28/2023

Net-Zero Industry Tracker 2023 

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, a World Economic Forum Advisory Council Member, contributed to the second edition of the Net-Zero Industry Tracker report provides a detailed analysis of the progress heavy industrial and transport sectors are making worldwide, in their efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. These sectors, which account for more than 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, need multifaceted solutions that accelerate the speed of technology development, build supporting infrastructure, and raise necessary capital to finance the transformation.  November 28, 2023.

Biden’s first-ever UN climate summit snub carries symbolic weight 11/28/2023

Biden’s first-ever UN climate summit snub carries symbolic weight

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how President Biden is reportedly skipping a global climate change summit for the first time in his presidency. Not attending the conference would mark a significant snub by a president who has vowed to fight global warming. Yet some experts say his absence is unlikely to actually impact the conference’s outcomes, with both his presence and absence playing more of a symbolic role. November 28, 2023.

Uranium’s Epic Rally Says Lots About the World Right Now 11/27/2023

Uranium’s Epic Rally Says Lots About the World Right Now

Payne Institute Fellow Liam Denning writes about how climate change will continue to spur demand for the metal while traders are betting on the growing risk of geopolitical disruptions to supply.  Uranium offers a perfect distillation of a world that is heating up and a world order that is breaking down. Plus a market eager to capitalize on both.  November 27, 2023.

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils 11/26/2023

Forever chemical study planned for Schriever Space Force Base focused on soils

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins contributes to this article about how PFAS or “forever chemicals” leach into the groundwater and pose a health risk, they sit in soils — where they can be washed out or otherwise treated before they reach an aquifer. The chemicals can cause a range of health problems at high levels in humans.  Researchers from the Colorado School of Mines and Clarkson University expect to compare nine different strategies for removing firefighting foam from the soils at the Schriever Space Force Base to help inform how soils at other sites could be treated in the future.  November 26, 2023.

Context-dependent changes in maritime traffic activity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic 11/25/2023

Context-dependent changes in maritime traffic activity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Christopher D. Elvidge and others write about how rapid implementation of human mobility restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reduced maritime activity in early 2020.  However, maritime activity in 2020 was more complex than previously reported, as activity were industry and area specific.  Passenger vessels were less active in 97% of Mediterranean Sea coastal states, and ceclines in fishing vessel presence were localised and short-lived.  November 25, 2023.

Align the VCM with Internal Carbon Pricing 11/21/2023

Align the VCM with internal carbon pricing

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler writes about how companies can boost confidence in the voluntary market by using their internal carbon prices as reference points against which to measure the implied climate contribution of their purchased offsets. November 21, 2023.

 

Tracking electricity losses and their perceived causes using nighttime light and social media 11/21/2023

Tracking electricity losses and their perceived causes using nighttime light and social media

Samuel W. Kerber, Nicholas A. Duncan, Guillaume F. L’Her, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Earth Observation Group Chris Elvidge, and Faculty Fellow Mark R. Deinert write about how urban environments are intricate systems where the breakdown of critical infrastructure can impact both the economic and social well-being of communities.  Electricity systems hold particular significance, as they are essential for other infrastructure, and disruptions can trigger widespread consequences.  This study shows how satellite imagery, social media, and information extraction can monitor blackouts and their perceived causes. November 21, 2023.  

Why calls for oil embargo on Israel are unlikely to go anywhere 11/21/2023

Why calls for oil embargo on Israel are unlikely to go anywhere

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how Israel’s military offensive in Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by the enclave’s ruling Islamist group Hamas has raised calls in the Middle East, particularly from OPEC member Iran, for using oil as a weapon to punish Israel.  Analysts and OPEC sources, however, say that the energy world today is far different from 50 years ago, and play down any possibility of a new embargo. November 21, 2023.

PROLONGED DIMMING OF UKRAINIAN URBAN ILLUMINATION: A MEASURE OF CONFLICT’S IMPACT 11/15/2023

Prolonged Dimming of Ukrainian Urban Illumination: A Measure of Conflict’s Impact

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Researcher Mikhail Zhizhin writes about how natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes or pandemics trigger a short-term dimming of city lights, followed by a rapid recovery. The war in Ukraine, however, has induced a novel pattern of city lights changes: an abrupt and sustained decline in illumination from the outset of the conflict, persisting for two years with partial recovery observed in some cities. November 15, 2023.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment 11/14/2023

The Fifth National Climate Assessment

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian was one of the contributing authors of the U.S. Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.  However, without deeper cuts in global net greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated adaptation efforts, severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow.  November 14, 2023.

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out. 11/13/2023

How can Colorado attack “forever chemicals” tainting military soil? School of Mines is leading the way to find out.

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how nine different techniques for getting PFAS out of toxic dirt will be tested next year at Schriever Space Force Base near Colorado Springs.  Even the environmental watchdogs cataloging the depressing toll of “forever chemicals” throughout the food chain say they are encouraged by the School of Mines test.  November 13, 2023.  

EMPOWERING OR REPRESSIVE: NAVIGATING THE COMPLEXITIES OF RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS IN THE US 11/13/2023

Empowering or Repressive: Navigating the Complexities of Renewable Portfolio Standards in the US

Payne Institute Student Researcher Siddhant Kulkarni and Program Manager Anna Littlefield write about how Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) represent a strategic push by governments to usher in an era of clean, renewable energy. While RPS are not the only policy-mechanisms that incentivize renewable energy, they have been in place for decades across the world. Data from the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) shows that worldwide installed renewable energy capacity has almost doubled in the last decade, thanks in part to the RPS policies implemented. In the US these regulations are particular to individual states and aim to combat increasing greenhouse gas emissions and by extension, climate change.  November 13, 2023.

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base 11/10/2023

Project to test technologies to clean up contaminated materials set to start at Colorado Springs-area military base

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Chris Higgins contributes to this article about how a project headed by the Colorado School of Mines to test the best clean up methods for PFAS-contaminated materials is set to begin next summer on Schriever Space Force Base.  According to Christopher Higgins, a School of Mines professor working on the Department of Defense-funded project, those working on the project will be testing six different PFAS clean up technologies on soils they say the base has set aside for testing in an effort to see which is the most effective on a larger scale.  November 10, 2023.

WHAT IF AMERICA’S MINERAL-INTENSIVE MILITARY RUNS OUT OF MINERALS? 11/10/2023

WHAT IF AMERICA’S MINERAL-INTENSIVE MILITARY RUNS OUT OF MINERALS?

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, Gregory Wischer, and Juliet Akamboe write about how minerals still undergird warfighting technology, including defense platforms and munitions.  Like previous junctions in human history, the current period will be defined by minerals and the warfighting technology that they enable. November 10, 2023.

Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Offsets and Fossil Fuel Retirement Credits 11/10/2023

Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Offsets and Fossil Fuel Retirement Credits

Payne Institute Sustainable Finance Lab Program Manager Brad Handler is one of two guests today on the S&P Global Energy Evolution podcast.  They are talking about carbon offset markets and oil and gas retirement credits. What function do these tools serve in the broader decarbonization push, and how exactly are we calculating them anyway? November 10, 2023.

Native American Energy Sovereignty is key to American Energy Security 11/9/2023

Native American Energy Sovereignty is key to American Energy Security

Payne Institute Native American Mining and Energy Sovereignty (NAMES) Initiative Program Manager Rick Tallman, Daniel Cardenas, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how as the energy transition plays out across the United States, tribal communities see both a tremendous opportunity and a direct threat to their sovereignty. The immense natural resources of tribal lands will almost certainly be needed to help secure the future of American energy security. At the same time, a history of energy exploitation has left reservation communities with systemic problems and unmet needs that energy policy makers, regulators and industry leaders must acknowledge, understand, and address in any go-forward plans.  November 9, 2023.

A Pathway to Responsible Mining in Indian Country 11/09/2023

A Pathway to Responsible Mining in Indian Country

Payne Institute Program Managers Rick Tallman and Brad Handler, Director Morgan Bazilian and Daniel Cardenas write about how the demand for minerals critical to both the energy transition and U.S. national security is growing rapidly. At the same time, the reliability of the global supply chain is being challenged by geopolitical events. The result is a growing call to bring more mining for these critical minerals back to the United States, where the vast majority of critical mineral reserves are located on or within 35 miles of Native American reservations.  November 9, 2023.

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level 11/7/2023

Tabares-Velasco awarded two DOE grants for work toward energy efficiency at any income level

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Tabares-Velasco is featured in this article about receiving funding from the DOE Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) program, for two projects specifically aimed at making energy efficiency, electrification and resiliency possibility for communities in Colorado: a home battery energy storage system for retrofitted housing in in Colorado and a new heat pump water heater with latent heat storage in low-income housing.  November 7, 2023.