Lost in the hoopla about renewed calls to drill ANWAR is the fact that there is a shortage of oil rigs, ships and other assorted resources to extract that oil even if it were enough to make a difference in our gas prices….

As President Bush calls for repealing a ban on drilling off most of the coast of the United States, a shortage of ships used for deep-water offshore drilling promises to impede any rapid turnaround in oil exploration and supply.

What is striking is that this is yet another economic reason to wean ourselves from oil ASAP - more of our dollars headed overseas to enrich other nations to support our energy habit.  When South Korean companies are putting $100 MM premiums on deepwater drilling ships - that shows up in our cost of energy - further strengthening the viscious cycle of deficit spending with regard to oil… This isn’t moving deck chairs around on the Titanic folks, this is selling the lifeboats to buy ice cubes…

Today’s cool charts come courtsey of GE. Now, its from GE so they have a vested interest, but today they released a powerpoint with some interesting datapoints regarding wind project impact on tax revenues and investment. GE claims subsized wind projects have a positive net return for the U.S. treasury over their lifetime. The argument is when you add up the various federal taxes associated with the economic activity of building a wind project and then operating that project over time, the Net Present Value (NPV) of that project with regard to taxes generated for the federal treasury is positive even after paying out a hefty federal tax subsidy up front.

There are no details on the NPV calculation so its hard to see exactly what assumptions go into this claim, i.e., what is the terminal value of the windfarm in year 10 (I assume its a 10 year DCF) given that the lifespan of a windfarm is well in excess of that. If true its the definition of a project that is revenue neutral from a tax standpoint.  Apparently, it doesn’t …

Yet another reason why the government is currently failing consumers with its Strategic Petroleum Reserve policy, and why investors in green stocks should tread carefully at current prices. This Forbe’s article outlines how Opec’s president has made the argument that speculators are driving the current high prices for oil. And in all fairness he has a point.

Whether you look at year over year data, or at data since October when oil breached $70 there is little evidence to support the current spiraling of oil prices. U.S. consumption is down, global consumption is flat after spiking in the fall of last year, and OPEC and total world production is up 2MM barrels a day. Inventories are down, reflecting the non-US consumption spike in the fall. Assuming that the pre-October pricing was status quo (a big if) that would portend for lower prices sometime in the future (hard to say when though).

It also is a really good argument as to why the mismanagement of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a big deal. If the federal government wanted to take the air of the market and shut down the speculators it could do so easily by a.) suspending the stockpiling …

Looks like solar power, oil, alternative energy and other green investors should expect continuing volitility in shares as congress (well… Republicans really) failed to renew two bills that would have impacted pretty much everything in the sector. First, they shot down a bill that would have imposed a windfall profit tax on Oil Companies and suspended oil production tax credits. I think its a classic example of legislative paralysis by amendment - something for everyone to hate (or at least every Republican). Too bad as it also had provisions to stop buying oil for the strategic petroleum reserve - which would have likely had a real near term impact on oil prices…

The second was to defeat the tax credits for renewables - which defies all logic. While I think that most expect that these credits will be renewed with a change in President (though I am not certain why as these aren’t even getting out of debate in the house) - the lack of action is going to whipsaw both the companies and wall street investors that own them over the short term because of the critical nature these subsidies play in making these renewable technologies affordable to consumers…

People talk a lot about alternative fuels being more viable with oil at such high prices. It also, however, makes other, more exotic, fossil fuel extraction techniques viable.  This piece in the UK’s Independent outlines how oil reserves are understated because certain known fields are too expensive to extract at this time - and therefore are excluded from oil reserve projections (an important point that I would wager that many investors don’t understand). 

The risk for green investors (and the environment for that matter) is that, if true, tapping oil reserves such as these could grow oil supply over current projections (even if its at these current high prices) - driving out the peak oil scenario longer than anticipated by Wall Street. (This is the kind of stuff investors and analysts miss all the time).

Cool Chart from Oil and Gas Journal Too…

See full size chart in new window 

A new Center for American Progress (CAP) report finds that in a study of 12 states, there are people that work in jobs that could be “green jobs”.  And collectively, accross the country this is over 14MM people, or nearly 10% of the U.S. work force.  Wow… that’s impressive…. 10% of Americans work in jobs that could be employed in green industries… could be…, hmmmm,… could be….  waaaaait a minute.  

That’s right folks - if you were hoping for some good data on green collar labor statistics you have come to the wrong place.  CAP just realeased a report that shows how many electiricians there are in Florida as a proxy for the green collar job potential for electricians in Florida (somebody needs to wire up all those solar panels - oh wait, Florida lacks tax subsidies, net metering and has ridiculously low power prices so solar penetration in Florida is negligible (oh the irony Sunshine State) - oh well…)  

Did you know if you drive a truck, you too could be part of the green revolution?  This silly report takes BLS numbers for certain industries (mostly construction or industrial related), totes them up and then pronounces that all these jobs “could be green” if we had the necessary resources and investment in that sector.

Of …