Distinguished Lecture Series

The Payne Institute’s Distinguished Lecture Series brings public speakers of the highest calibre from the worlds of academia, government, the policy domain and business to our campus to share their thoughts and ideas.

The purpose of the series is to provoke discussion and debate about a range of topics and subjects related to policy issues focusing on earth, energy, and environment. The agenda is kept deliberately broad and the lectures are intended to be accessible to a general audience. Lectures are open to the Mines community as well as the public.

Past Distinguished Lectures

April 14, 2016: Thomas A. Petrie, CFA, Chairman, Petrie Partners

Shifts in the Geopolitical Landscape and Their Impact on Petroleum Sector Capex Strategies

The presentation will identify global drivers emerging post 9/11 that particularly affect upstream petroleum operators. These include: (1) changes in Chinese economic growth; (2) emerging power triangles driving the energy strategies of key Eastern Hemisphere nations; and (3) redefi nition of the North American security needs given advances in hydrocarbon extraction technology. Concerns about “Peak Oil” itself actually peaked in the middle of the last decade resulting in a substantially enhanced role for fossil fuels over the next several decades into the middle of this century. This occurrence has potential game-changing consequences for global petroleum entities. Given the current Middle East and North Africa chaos in the aftermath of the 2011 “Arab-Spring” events, other oil and gas supply gains are likely to provide a critical cushion against inevitable Black Swan events. The presentation will conclude with an examination of the possible changes in oil and gas trading patterns poised to now unfold.

Prior to joining Petrie Partners as Chairman in 2012, Mr. Petrie was Vice Chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was also co-founder of Petrie Parkman & Co., a Denver-based energy investment banking fi rm. Mr. Petrie has been an advisor on more than $250 billion of energy-related mergers and acquisitions. Petrie Parkman advised the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on its natural gas initiative, the State of Alaska on gas pipeline options, and the U.S. Department of Energy on the sale of the Elk Hills oilfi eld. Mr. Petrie is a past President and member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Petroleum Investment Analysts. He has served on the SEC Advisory Board on Oil and Gas Accounting. Mr. Petrie recently authored the book, FOLLOWING OIL: Four Decades of Cycle-Testing Experiences and What They Foretell about U.S. Energy Independence. Mr. Petrie has a B.Sc. degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a M.Sc. in Business Administration from Boston University. In December 2005, Mr. Petrie received an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering degree from Colorado School of Mines.

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October 29, 2015: Adam Sieminski, U.S. Energy Information Administration

Annual Energy Outlook 2015

Mr. Adam Sieminski will speak about the EIA and its Annual Energy Outlook for 2015; this report presents long-term projections of U.S. energy supply, demand, and prices through 2040. The projections focus on the factors that shape the U.S. energy system over the long term. Under the assumption that current laws and regulations remain unchanged throughout the projections, the Outlook’s Reference case projections provide the basis for examination and discussion of energy production, consumption, technology, and market trends and the direction they may take in the future. It also serves as a starting point for analysis of potential changes in energy policies.

Adam Sieminski was sworn in on June 4, 2012, as the eighth administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policy-making, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. EIA also prepares analyses and special reports on topics of current interest.

From March 2012 to May 2012, while awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as EIA administrator, Mr. Sieminski served as senior director for energy and environment on the staff of the National Security Council. From 1998 until March 2012, he served as a senior energy analyst for Deutsche Bank, working with the Bank’s global research and trading units. Drawing on extensive industry, government, and academic sources, Mr. Sieminski forecasted energy market trends and wrote on a variety of topics involving energy economics, climate change, geopolitics, and commodity prices.

Mr. Sieminski has served in leadership positions for the International Association for Energy Economics and the affiliated U.S. Association for Energy Economics.  He also has acted as a senior adviser to the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan policy think tank in Washington. In 2006, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman appointed Mr. Sieminski as a member of the National Petroleum Council (NPC), an industry-government advisory group to the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

He is a member of the Washington, D.C., investment professional society, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He received both an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in public administration from Cornell University.

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February 6, 2015: Lawrence H. Goulder, Stanford University

Confronting Climate Change: Economics, Fairness and Political Feasibility

How can climate change policies be designed to be not only environmentally effective but also cost-effective and fair?  And how can they be made more acceptable politically?  Lawrence Goulder’s talk will explore how these different and often competing goals can be approached.  While acknowledging that no perfect approach exists, he will suggest some potentially promising directions, drawing from academic research and recent climate-policy experience at the national and international levels.  In considering these issues he will explore the potential roles for carbon taxes, cap and trade, performance standards, and direct technology promotion.

Lawrence H. Goulder is the Shuzo Nishihara Professor in Environmental and Resource Economics at Stanford and Director of the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center. He is also a University Fellow at Resources for the Future and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Goulder’s research examines the environmental and economic impacts of U.S. and international environmental policies, including policies to deal with climate change and pollution from power plants and automobiles.  His work also explores the “sustainability” of consumption patterns in various countries.  He recently chaired a committee to advise the California Environmental Protection Agency on the design of a cap-and-trade system to help meet the state’s targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

At Stanford Goulder teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in environmental economics and policy, and co-organizes a weekly seminar in public and environmental economics.  He graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in philosophy and received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford.