Environment, Resources and Energy Policy
Colorado School of Mines
Building a New Kind of Expert
The environmental, resources, and energy policy challenges of the twenty-first century demand a new kind of expert. We need professionals who can bridge intellectual and political divides while shaping a rapidly changing world for the better. In the Environment, Resources and Energy Policy (ENREP) master’s program, our students learn how to:
- Make thoughtful decisions about the future amidst social, political, environmental and technological change, as well as scientific uncertainty.
- Meaningfully engage diverse communities in policy processes and decision-making about the environment, resources, and energy.
- Analyze policy from multiple perspectives and with attention to multiple criteria, such as distributions of benefits and burdens, tradeoffs, risk, and more.
- Become leaders in the energy transition and climate change mitigation and adaptation, and recognize how these dynamics intersect other environment and resource topics.
- Communicate clearly, accurately, and creatively in multiple professional formats and to different audiences
Learning in a real-world interdisciplinary setting
Environment, Resources and Energy Policy is not a traditional policy program. Our students learn in a setting that is uniquely interdisciplinary and connected to real-world decision contexts in the following ways:
- Half of our students have backgrounds in the physical sciences and engineering, and half hail from social sciences and humanities. This variety mimics that of most policy-related jobs, where “social” and “technical” experts must work together to solve problems.
- Engaged faculty come from multiple fields within the social sciences and the humanities. We are also fortunate to work with colleagues in the physical sciences and engineering. All of these disciplines offer crucial policy insights, critiques, and analytical approaches.
Our policy program is situated at one of the country’s premier engineering and applied science universities. This puts cutting-edge technologies and industries—as well as important debates about them—at our students’ fingertips.
What our students do after the program
How you use your degree depends on your background, as well as your individual career goals. According to a recent analysis of alumni jobs, our graduates pursue careers in the following areas:
- Consulting – finding solutions to challenges in environmental compliance, developing climate change resilience strategies, conducting energy planning
- Government – managing energy, water, and public lands, achieving sustainability goals, engaging communities at the local, state, and federal levels
- Non-profits and NGOs – developing policy strategy and recommendations, analyzing and responding to policy changes, executing projects and campaigns
- Private sector – evaluating energy and transmission systems, developing energy resources, advancing corporate environmental and social responsibility
- Academia – pursuing doctoral degrees in ENREP-related fields or master’s degrees in adjacent fields, both domestically and internationally
Connect with us on LinkedIn
I chose Mines and the NREP program for the opportunity to study political science with a specific focus on water and renewable energy. Through a diverse array of courses, I have been able to dig deeper into water politics, renewable energy policy, environmental law, and sustainable mining practices. The program has also connected me with industry leaders, and helped me get an internship and job with the largest water utility in Colorado: Denver Water. With my NREP degree, I feel prepared for a career in the public sector.
“One of the many reasons I really enjoy this program is that we have a mix of backgrounds in the room with engineers, scientists, social scientists, and humanities. With these different perspectives we constantly challenge each other’s assumptions, allowing us all to gain a better understanding of the situation at hand.”
Alumni employers include:
- Burns & McDonnell
- Bay West
- Boston Consulting Group
- Cascade Environmental
- Colorado Division of Water Resources
- City of San Diego
- Colorado State Forest Service
- Colorado School of Mines Mining Engineering PhD program
- Conundrum Geological Services
- Denver Water
- East Daley Analytics
- Geneva Graduate Institute MS Program in International and Development Studies
- Georgia Public Service Commission
- GEOS
- ICF Strategic Consulting
- INVISTA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
- PA Consulting
- Rystad Energy
- Saudi Aramco
- Stellar Renewable Power
- SKK Migas
- Sunnova Energy
- Tri-State Generation and Transmission
- Vulcan Materials Company
- Woodard & Curran
- University of Oklahoma Political Science PhD program
- Waste Management
- University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
- Solutionary Energy Collective
- Antero Resources
Environment, Resources & Energy Policy Curriculum
NON-THESIS MASTER’S DEGREE
Environmental, resources, and energy policy challenges are fundamentally intertwined, so our three Core Courses help you build a foundation in these areas with an emphasis on climate and environment, water, and energy and minerals. Students also choose two Skills Courses to expand their policy problem-solving toolboxes. You can deepen existing skillsets or cross-train in a new area. Skills options are grouped under the themes of Analytics & Modeling, Community Engagement, Sustainability, and History & Theory. That’s 15 credits.
The other half of your ENREP degree (15 more credits) is made up of Electives that you choose from across the university. In addition to taking more Skills courses, popular focus areas for Electives include: the Energy Transition, Environmental Futures, International Development, Minerals & Mining, Economics & Policy, and Professional Development.
Visit the graduate course catalog for more details about course offerings.
While you’re working on your Electives, you can also find an internship (paid or unpaid) and earn three elective credits for it. Our students have interned at the Congressional Research Service, Energy Africa, Platts Analytics, National Renewable Energy Lab, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, United Nations, Trout Unlimited, Xcel Energy, and at the state legislature through the Colorado Science & Engineering Policy Fellowship, to name just a few places. Mines students find opportunities via the Career Center and the DiggerNet job board, networking at campus events, and from their own professional contacts.
Students typically complete ENREP in three semesters.
Mines also offers several certificate programs that attract ENREP students, including:
- Resource Commodity Analytics
- Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage
- GIS and Geoinformatics
- Humanitarian Engineering & Science
Find all certificate programs here.
CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
Interested in a policy certificate instead? The ENREP program offers a 9-credit ENREP certificate option. Find more details in the graduate course catalog.
Questions regarding Environment, Resources and Energy Policy program options?
Reach out to program director, Dr. Derrick Hudson at dkhudson@mines.edu