ARCTIC NOT SO HOT AFTER ALL? Joshua Kurlantzick's story in this month's Prospect was a fascinating look at how huge energy companies (including some that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to undermine the global scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that we are responsible) are rushing to lock up oil and gas resources in the Arctic region. Yesterday, however, energy consultants Wood Mackenzie and geoscientists Fugro Robertson released a joint study casting doubt on what Wood Mackenzie's VP called "the long-considered view that the Arctic represents one of the last great oil and gas frontiers and a strategic energy supply cache for the U.S." Most of the resources up there, moreover, are difficult-to-transport gas rather than oil. No doubt the report's findings will curb some enthusiasm for Arctic drilling among the oil majors. More here from the Houston Chronicle. I'd be interested to hear Kurlantzick's thoughts.
--Blake Hounshell
