Mines professor to chair federal advisory committee on energy transition, metal markets

Ian Lange, associate professor of economics and business and director of the Mineral and Energy Economics program at Colorado School of Mines, has been asked to chair a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) subcommittee on the role of metals markets in the energy transition.

An independent agency of the U.S. government, the CFTC regulates the U.S. derivatives markets. Lange  will lead a team of stakeholders to examine the role of critical metals in transitional energy sources and their potential impact on derivatives markets as part of the CFTC Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee.

“The price dynamics of critical minerals are important to investments in clean energy technologies,” Lange said. “Our students will be able to gain a fuller picture of these issues through this experience.”

With increasing demands for minerals used in renewable energy, such as electric vehicles and solar panels, firms are changing how they procure minerals, Lange said. This has led the CFTC to request a report touching the following topics:

• How the increased demand for certain metals impact existing derivatives markets,
• Issues around creating new derivatives markets for metals that will be integral in transitional energy, and
• How financial regulation should change given the increased demand on and need for metals derivatives market.

“The Mineral and Energy Economics program is world class in the area of mineral markets so I am excited to bring our knowledge to this important report,” Lange said. 

Founded in 1969, Mines’ Mineral and Energy Economics program is the only mineral economics program in the United States. The program provides master’s and doctoral degrees for students interested in contributing to the mineral and energy industry from an economics perspective.

Lange currently serves as a member of the Colorado Governor’s Revenue Estimating Advisory Committee. He previously served as Senior Economist for Energy at the U.S. White House Council of Economic Advisers for both the Trump and Biden administrations.