Author: Margo Thorning

Lifting the restrictions on U.S. crude oil exports would lead to further increases in domestic oil production, result in lower gasoline prices and support millions of additional jobs, according to a comprehensive new study commissioned by the Energy Security Initiative (ESI) at Brookings in coordination with a macroeconomic study contracted from National Economic Research Associates (NERA) Economic Consulting. The production boom from shale plays across the country, such as North Dakota and Texas, have sparked serious debate on what we should do with our new energy reality of abundant crude oil supply. To shed light on how our Administration should move forward with this new abundant energy source, the ESI partnered with the National Economic Research Associates (NERA) to examine the economic and national security impacts of lifting the ban on crude oil exports. And their findings were clear: it is time to match our policies to our current energy landscape. Economically, the study found that lifting the ban on crude oil exports from the United States will boost economic growth, wages, employment, trade and overall welfare. Each scenario used in the study model – delaying lifting the ban until 2015, lifting the ban only on condensates or lifting the…

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This weeks’ topic on National Journal’s Energy Insiders: How Should Climate Change Be Taught? The battle over climate science in schools is heating up. Earlier this month, a coalition of national science-education advocates released a students bill of rights asserting that students across the country should be taught the scientific consensus on climate change. The consensus view held by 97 percent of scientists, according to reviews of the academic literature, holds that the planet is heating up and human activity is the primary cause. Currently, however, a patchwork of state science standards exist that do not mandate the consensus view is taught, leaving the door open for controversy over climate change to get equal airtime in many classrooms. My response: States should decide how best to teach issues like climate change and climate change policies. Like any important issue–evolution vs creationism, national defense and health care policy–it is critical that students understand all sides of the debate. It was an honor for me to help present an economic perspective on the climate change debate to a group of middle school students in Atlanta, Georgia. See more about this athttps://www.capitalcorner.org…. For instance, it’s important for students to understand that climate change is a global…

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The American Council for Capital Formation’s (ACCF) ActOnLNG campaign has launched a new video highlighting how important liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are to revitalizing Main Street, powering key industries, and strengthening U.S. manufacturing.  The short video, narrated by former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-Tenn), also urges the Obama administration to speed up LNG export approvals.  The video complements efforts in Congress to boost LNG exports to America’s allies through legislation, including the Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act (H.R. 6). “This video captures the sense of urgency that use needed to ensure that the United States continues to lead the world in the development of energy resources–particularly natural gas,” explained Dr. Margo Thorning, ACCF Chief Economist and Senior Vice President.  ”Exporting LNG would be a real game changer for the nation’s economy and would help America sustain its natural gas boom.  We hope this video will spark further conversation around natural gas exports–especially the need to cut through the bureaucratic red tape holding back development.”

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It’s becoming a quarterly tradition as reliable as the seasons: the oil sector releases its earnings, and the Center for American Progress contorts itself into a misleading critique of the industry, its tax treatment, and its outsized role in the American economy. Unfortunately, repetition has not made CAP’s argument any more factual, any more persuasive, or any more founded in the common sense tenets that make for sound energy and tax policy. The crux of CAP’s argument is, as ever, that the oil and gas industry’s earnings are too high. And because of these high earnings, the oil and gas industry should be taxed more heavily. They assert that the oil sector fails to carry its share of the burden, that it is a drain on the economy, and that policymakers should act in a manner that artificially shifts the American energy portfolio away from traditional fossil energy and toward preferred, “green” energy projects. Not a single aspect of this line of reasoning holds water. Earnings, Expenses, and Returns Let’s start with the earnings. Earnings in 2013 for the “Big Five” oil companies clocked in at $93 billion – an objectively large number, but around thirty percent lower than last…

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Background: A recent article by Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress tries to make the case that because the net income of large, integrated U.S. oil companies has risen in recent years, these companies should lose the federal income tax provisions they currently use.  A quick look at Weiss’s article reveals several serious analytical and methodological flaws which make his conclusions about how tax reform should impact the oil and gas industry inappropriate and, in fact, harmful to U.S. job and economic growth.

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