In the Pipeline: 7/15/13

Turns out it’s easier for the Gulf to come back from an act of God than His Majesty’s energy policies. IER (7/15/13) reports: “The Institute for Energy Research compared the impacts of hurricane activity and the Obama Administration’s oil policies on production in the offshore Gulf of Mexico to see which has the larger and more lasting impact. Although the shorter-term impacts of both are similar in size, Obama’s policies seem to have a more lasting effect. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico will not reach its peak 2010 production level at least through 2014, the farthest year out in the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook.”

The Aussies loved their carbon tax so much, they’re dropping it a year sooner than planned. Al Jazeera (7/14/13) reports: “Australia will scrap its carbon tax and bring forward an emissions trading scheme a year earlier than planned, Treasurer Chris Bowen said, a policy shift certain to be a focal point in the forthcoming election. Under current plans, Australia would move from the current fixed price on carbon – essentially a tax assessed on larger companies entitling them to produce carbon emissions – to a floating price in July 2015. Bowen on Sunday confirmed media reports that the fixed $21.9 per tonne carbon tax would be dumped in favour of a floating price of between $5.5 and $9.1 per tonne from July 1, 2014, to ease cost of living pressure for families and help support the non-mining sectors of the economy.”

Are they sure? Because I am pretty sure everyone keeps telling me that wind and solar and unicorns are the paths to riches. The Energy Information Agency (7/12/13) reports: “In 2012, North Dakota reported the highest annual increase in real per capita GDP of any state in the country for the second consecutive year. In 2012, real per capita GDP in North Dakota increased by nearly 11% from the previous year, according to statistics released June 6, 2013 by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). This is considerably higher than the national growth rate of less than 2% and is more than three times as large as the growth rate in Texas (3.27%), the state with the next highest annual growth.”

Let’s recap. Climate change? Risk #32 (but ahead of “space weather”, so that’s a plus). Excessive taxation? Risk #1. Think about that on Thursday when Ma’am Boxer tries to sell you a carbon tax.Lloyds Risk Index 2013 reports(PDF): “This is the third biennial Risk Index, commissioned by Lloyd’s to assess corporate risk priorities and attitudes among business leaders across the world. The findings are based on a global survey of 588 C-suite and board level executives conducted by Ipsos MORI for Lloyd’s during April and May 2013.”

This can’t be good news for the bad guys. C3 Headlines (7/8/13) reports: “Of the major economic/diplomatic/military powers listed in this chart, only the U.S. embraced new fossil fuel technologies and non-Kyoto strategies to reduce emissions. Over the last 5 years, fracking has not only helped America to lead the world towards a smaller carbon impact, it has massively shifted the U.S. to an improved level of energy security while vastly reducing the petro-dollar funding of Islamist terrorists – a ‘win-win-win’ outcome that liberal Democrats worked extremely hard to prevent and, by god, they still do.”