Event notice: Register now for “Assessing the Air Quality and Climate Benefits of EPA’s Clean Power Plan,” a joint webinar on December 16 from RFF and the Electric Power Research Institute.

Oil Price Drop and an Opportunity

Oil prices have fallen to $65 per barrel, a drop that has been primarily attributed to a decision by OPEC countries to continue producing more than 700,000 barrels a day above existing market demands. Members including Saudi Arabia are reportedly trying to “knock out US shale producers by driving prices lower than they can afford.”

In a recent blog post, RFF’s Alan Krupnick notes that while the US shale industry is “weathering the price drop well so far,” small private companies may not be able to withstand low oil prices for very long. RFF’s Joel Darmstadter notes in the Washington Post that falling gas prices in the United States provide “an opportunity whose cost would encroach only slightly on our good fortune: an increase in the federal gas tax.”

Clean Power Plan Comments

The public comment period for EPA’s proposed emissions regulations for power plants closed last week. The Clean Power Plan garnered more than 1.6 million remarks from “legislators, industry groups, environmental advocates, and private citizens,” while prompting a number of company-led lawsuits and state-filed amicus briefs.

RFF experts submitted comments on the Clean Power Plan, weighing in on a wide range of topics mentioned in the proposal, as well as potential issues and alternatives that lawmakers should consider as they finalize the regulations. For more on this topic, see RFF’s Expert Forum on EPA’s Clean Power Plan.