“Personally, I think we are heading to a bit of a crisis,” said Jennifer Miskimins, who leads the petroleum-engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines, one of the world’s premier oil universities. “As petroleum engineers age, the industry ....

“Inevitably, it wasn’t going to be a transition without tension,” said Morgan Bazilian, an energy expert and professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “The balancing act politically is becoming a lot harder.”

“I know their approach works, because I’ve done it by hand,” says M. Stephen Enders, a 45-year industry veteran who heads the department of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.

“You see more and more communities running out of options—especially inland communities,” which are pumping their aquifers dry, said Tzahi Y. Cath, a civil engineer at the Colorado School of Mines who is helping Colorado Springs directly recycle its ....

“Students are worried,” says Wendy Winter-Searcy, a director at the career center at Colorado School of Mines. She’s been trying to “help them brainstorm alternative paths.”

The federal government needs to better understand how widespread the chemicals are in the food supply, and assess potential harm to people and wildlife, said Christopher P. Higgins, a Colorado School of Mines professor whose research team found the ....