A Free-Market Energy Blog

Offshore Alaska Drilling: Private Effort versus Regulatory Constraints

By Greg Rehmke -- July 17, 2013

Royal Dutch Shell has spent billions of dollars over six years preparing to drill for new oil in Alaska. The hidden treasure is an estimated 20–25 billion barrels of oil beneath the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Not surprisingly, drilling for oil in Alaska is complicated and expensive (See map of proposed offshore exploration and drilling in Alaska). Part of the complexity is the distant Arctic location and short summer exploration and drilling window, and part is caused by drifty U.S. federal regulations.

Oil exploration and production is never easy (as in “the ‘easy oil’ has been found”), and new frontiers, technological and geographical, are always the challenge. And in this case, federal regulation from an anti-oil administration is at work.

Shell’s Coming Restart

on Shell’s suspended Arctic drilling operations for 2013, the company hasn’t given up.

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Global Warming is Responsible for ….

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 16, 2013

“When the history of the global warming scare comes to be written, a chapter should be devoted to the way the message had to be altered to keep the show on the road. Global warming became climate change so as to be able to take the blame for cold spells and wet seasons as well as hot days. Then, to keep its options open, the movement began to talk about ‘extreme weather’.”

– Matt Ridley,Nobody Even Calls the Weather Average,” July 9, 2013.

There is no link between global warming and Sharknado, tweats U.S. EPA. But this summer, global warming has been blamed for firefighter deaths, more thunderstorms, and poor lobster catches. The litany of abnormalities that is so big and broad that contradictions, not only prima facie absurdities, abound.

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AWED Newsletter: July 15, 2013

By -- July 15, 2013

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using real science.

Instead of a science-based approach, our energy and environmental policies are typically written by those who stand to economically or politically profit from them. As a result, anything genuinely science-based in these policies is usually inadvertent and accidental.

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every 3 weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

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More reports about greed energy economics:

It’s Time To Sequester Green Energy Subsidies, Not Mythical Oil And Gas Tax Breaks

End Subsidies for Wind Energy?

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Other Arguments Against Environmental Commodification (Part IV)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 14, 2013
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Economists vs. Ecosystem Commodification (Part III)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 13, 2013
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Environmentalists Question Commodification (Part II)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 12, 2013
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Pricing (Nonmarket) Ecosystem Services: The Dream (Part I)

By Sterling Burnett -- July 11, 2013
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Coal As An Environmental Product (Part II)

By Mary Hutzler -- July 10, 2013
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U.S. Coal: Vast, Market Ready (Part I)

By Mary Hutzler -- July 9, 2013
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Reclaiming the Moral High Ground (Epstein’s new energy primer)

By Pierre Desrochers -- July 8, 2013
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