Economics and the Environment are Everywhere

A recent special section in the New York Times, THE BUSINESS OF GREEN (available at http://nytimes.com/business/businessspecial2/ ). There are some interesting articles on economies of scale in the alternative energy sector, carbon offsets, recent policies aimed at reducing trucker idling, and coal-fired electricity companies working to help shape climate change policy.

Also, a recent front-page article, "Oil Innovations Pump Life into Old Wells" (subscription) discusses the ways in which the market has spurred new supply in the oil industry. The bottom line?

Within the last decade, technology advances have made it possible to unlock more oil from old fields, and, at the same time, higher oil prices have made it economical for companies to go after reserves that are harder to reach. With plenty of oil still left in familiar locations, forecasts that the world’s reserves are drying out have given way to predictions that more oil can be found than ever before.

Raymond J. Learsy chimes in from the Huffington Post:

Now that the truth about oil resources has been revealed by America's most famous newspaper, we can at least hope that the scarcity threat has lost its punch. But if the truth is going to set us completely free, we have to keep the pressure on Congress to rein in our consumption of fossil fuels while giving more support to the development of alternatives.