When we read Frost’s, The Road Not Taken, neither he nor we know if the path he took was best.  

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Heaven knows we’ve opined enough on the effect of hostile government policies on the ability of producers in high cost environments to continue producing taxes and royalties for their governments and profits for their shareholders.  We’ve encouraged northern Alaska state and Canadian provincial governments to spend more time looking outward — to better understand global competition.  Instead, politicians on both sides of their national boundaries are obsessed with looking inward — grappling with how to tax and spend more for current beneficiaries — rather than creating safe havens for future oil and gas investment and future citizens.

We have always thought the ‘better road’ to be the one that errs more in favor of the next generation than current self-servers.

Below, the WSJ describes how the Saudi government efforts to pressure U.S. shale producers could better have been devoted to improving their own global competitiveness.  Their bluff backfired and, instead, reduced their own attractiveness while giving shale producers massive incentive for becoming more efficient and more attractive to investors. 

We all have equal opportunity to learn from experience and history.  We also have equal capability to focus on long term sustainable policies or on short-term political gains.  

So far, human nature is tempting many of our governments to choose the path that results in more power and more voter support for the current crop of decision makers.  

Is that path the harder one less traveled or the rosier one?

And, which one is the best one?

To the relief of politicians, we’ll never be able to prove their choice to have been wrong.  We’ll never know how it would have been the other way.  Not knowing, in his poem Frost sighs.

We think we know that the road less traveled requires most sacrifice for this generation and leads to most prosperity for the next.  

It is the grasshopper/ant fable in real time.

Which road will we have taken?  

Sigh….

Only a few years ago America’s policy makers were wringing their hands about “peak oil” and dependence on imported fuels. Now headlines feature the return of oil gluts. What happened? Saudi Arabia undertook a “stress test” of America’s oil-and-gas industry that produced unintended consequences.

We’re witnessing the first signs of a new normal in oil markets. Call it Shale 2.0, characterized by a potent combination: eager and liquid capital markets funding hundreds of experienced (now-lean) small to midsize companies that…  

Our PLF Hero and Web Sponsor Strikes Again!

Yes, we know this is not a Northern Energy issue…but it is related in the sense that this new ESA success with a new administrations signals that ‘help is on the way’ with respect to energy related ESA issues.  Congratulations to one of my old home towns, too, Crystal River Florida!  -dh

Statement on PLF victory in achieving manatee downlisting

Palm Beach Gardens, FL; March 30, 2017:  Prodded by years of legal action by Pacific Legal Foundation, federal officials today finally brought the regulation of the manatee into line with the latest science, by reclassifying it from “endangered” to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

“Everyone who values accuracy and integrity in environmental regulations should be pleased with this news,” said PLF attorney Christina Martin.  “Finally, the federal government is formally acknowledging what its experts…

The case is Save Crystal River v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  More information may be found at PLF’s website: www.pacificlegal.org.