Why Brazil’s Find Doesn’t Matter

The find: “On Nov. 8, Brazil’s state-controlled oil firm Petrobras confirmed the finding of huge oil reserves that could hold up to 8 billion barrels of light crude in the Tupi fields, off Brazil’s southeastern coast.” “Tupi is the world’s biggest oil find since a 12 billion-barrel Kazakh field was discovered in 2000, and the largest ever in deep waters.” “Perhaps more important, Petrobras believes Tupi may be Brazil’s first of several new ‘elephants,’ an industry term for outsize fields of more than 1 billion barrels.”

Ok, it does matter. It’s a huge find for Brazil that will make the nation a major oil exporter for years to come, especially given their booming ethanol industry. It is significant in a world where every year another nation peaks in production or switches from net exporter to net importer. Every drop counts.

Political Environmentalism: Bad for the Environment

From the Economist, in regards to the upcoming energy bill:

The Democrats hold at least two suspect truths to be self-evident. Most obviously, they think that politicians should micro-manage energy policy, encouraging some technologies and neglecting others. That ignores most of the lessons of economics, but it is decidedly well grounded compared with the Democrats’ other verity: that slowing global warming and reducing dependence on imported fuels go hand-in-hand. What sense does it make to give preference to American ethanol over the cheaper and more climate-friendly Brazilian sort? (Indeed, if you embrace the goal of “energy security”, bigger imports of Brazilian ethanol might help, by reducing America’s demand for oil from more hostile lands.)