I want to welcome you all to Roy, Utah and thank our host, the Weber County Public Library, for the opportunity to hold this meeting of the CFTC’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC).

I also want to thank the Chairman and my fellow commissioners, particularly Commissioners Goldsmith Romero and Johnson who is here in person, for participating and for their interest in this committee.

Thank you to all of the guests in attendance and online, our panel participants, the committee members and associate members on EEMAC.

This is a special meeting for several reasons. First and foremost, I am pleased to announce that our All-Star EEMAC Secretary Lauren Fulks, is getting some help.

With us today we have two new Alternate Secretaries for EEMAC, JonMarc Buffa, Assistant Chief of the Office of Cooperative Enforcement and Lillian Cardona, Assistant Chief Counsel in the Division of Market Oversight.  Thank you both for being willing to volunteer your time to help EEMAC.

Second, we are entering into subcommittee work for the two subcommittees created after our first EEMAC meeting to further discuss energy infrastructure and metals markets.

Dr. Timothy Fitzgerald will Chair EEMAC’s Physical Energy Infrastructure Subcommittee.

Dr. Fitzgerald is an Associate Professor of Energy Commerce & Business Economics at Texas Tech and has extensive experience in energy markets. Lillian Cardona will be assisting him as the lead Alternate Secretary for this subcommittee.

Dr. Ian Lange will Chair EEMAC’s Subcommittee on the Role of Metals Markets in Transitional Energy.

Dr. Lange is an Associate Professor of Economics and Business at the Colorado School of Mines and an expert in metals.  JonMarc Buffa will be assisting him as the lead Alternate Secretary for the subcommittee.

In addition, we have three new appointments to these subcommittees. Jin Chang from CME group will serve on the Metals Markets Subcommittee and Peter Keavy, also from CME, will serve on the Physical Energy Infrastructure subcommittee.

Joining them will be Cortney Cowley, who you may remember from her presentation before EEMAC in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  Cortney is a Senior Economist in the Regional Affairs Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and also serves as a Special Advisor on the agricultural economy to Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman.  She will be serving on both subcommittees.

Finally, Dr. Evren Damar will be joining EEMAC as a Special Government Employee.  Dr. Damar is an Associate Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges whose research focuses on how financial sector participants respond to various regulatory and market shocks.

Thank you, Tim, Ian, Evren, Cortney, Jin, and Pete for your willingness to step up and contribute your time and talents to EEMAC.

Utah is known as the Beehive State and folks here do take their beehive symbolism pretty seriously.[1]  A beehive appears on the state flag and the state seal.[2]  The state insect is the Honeybee.[3]  The state Capitol features two large beehive sculptures, and even the state’s official astronomical symbol is the “beehive cluster.” [4]

Like me, you all may be wondering as well:  Why is Utah so obsessed with bees?

It turns out that to the early pioneers who settled the Utah Territory, the bee and more importantly, the beehive, symbolized cooperation, teamwork, and a community that works for the good of the whole. [5]

These pioneers saw the bee as a smaller part of a larger whole, doing its part to provide for the hive.  As they started to create a new society and what would eventually become Salt Lake City and the State of Utah, the beehive was a powerful symbol for what they could achieve if they worked together.

Even today for the people of Utah, the beehive symbolizes community and industry, as each person in Utah works together to support and help one another and create a successful and prosperous state.

As these subcommittees begin their work, I hope we can work together, find common ground, and challenge ourselves to reach for solutions and fix problems.>

Thank you to all the committee members and associate members who have chosen a subcommittee.  To those who have not yet chosen, please feel free to reach out to Lauren, Lillian, or JonMarc if you would like to join a subcommittee.

Turning to our agenda for this meeting, at our last meeting in Nashville, we discussed electricity and electrification and today, we are going to take advantage of Utah’s role as the second largest Copper producing state in the US to have a brief presentation and update on Copper markets from Derek Sammann from CME. [6]

After that, we will move on to what I think will be an interesting presentation and discussion with Michael Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Director Rolband is a Professional Engineer, Professional Wetland Delineator, Professional Wetland Scientist Emeritus and LEED (green building) Advanced Professional. [7]

In addition to his professional credentials, he played a key role in developing Virginia’s wetlands laws.  Today he is going to discuss the history and use of wetland and other compliance mitigation credits and how they are bought and sold.  I suspect the existence and function of these credits are likely new topics to many of you, and certainly a new topic for the EEMAC.

Although these credits are outside of the scope and jurisdiction of the CFTC, it is possible the CFTC could share our knowledge and provide technical assistance to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and other state and federal environmental regulators, in the creation of markets for these credits.

Today, mitigation credits are being produced, bought, and sold at both the state and federal levels.  These credits help to facilitate economic growth and protect the environment, but there is no transparent market or price discovery in these markets.

When I first considered this topic, I was reminded that Ronald Reagan famously joked that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help’, [8] so I approach this cautiously. But, given our experience in promoting transparent derivatives markets on numerous commodities, it stands to reason our knowledge and expertise could offer guidance to those involved with the wetland and compliance mitigation credits who are interested in creating more transparent marketplaces for the buying and selling of these credits.

I look forward to hearing more and learning from Director Rolband about these environmental markets.

Finally, thank you again to all the CFTC staff who helped bring EEMAC to Utah.  I especially want to recognize our outgoing business manager Kinnith Artemus.  Next month, Kinnith will be leaving the agency for another opportunity, but he will be sorely missed by all of us here at the CFTC.  Thank you Kinnith for all your help and service to the Commission.

Again, thank you to my fellow commissioners, committee members and associate members, and guests for taking time out of your busy schedules to explore these important topics and participate on this committee.

With that, I will turn it over to Commissioner Johnson for her opening remarks.

[1]  Mary Brown Malouf, “Behind the Beehive,” Salt Lake Magazine, 12 January 2022 .

[2]  Id.

[3]  Id.

[4]  Id.

[5]  Id.

[6]  World Population Review, Copper Production by State (Updated April 2023), available at Copper Production by State [Updated April 2023] available at: https://www.worldpopulationreview.com..

[7]  Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, available at: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/get-involved/about-us/deq-leadership.

[8]  Ronald Reagan, August 12, 1986, Press Conference, available at: https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes-speeches/news-conference-1/.