It remains to be seen whether Russia will continue to give high priority to Arctic oil development if the tight-oil revolution from North America spreads quickly to Russia, driving a renaissance of West Siberia.
Until U.S. tax and securities oversight laws level the playing field by rewarding energy companies for making bets on renewables and remove the incentives for going after ever more fossil fuels, drilling for oil in ever more dangerous places will continue.
Given the fundamental differences between new liquid hydrocarbons—technologically, economically, geographically, and environmentally—it will become increasingly important to parse out the differing climate impacts between oils and choose wisely.
While worldwide supplies of accessible oil are growing, the array of emerging unconventional oil is diversifying. These new oil sources pose important energy, environmental, security, and climate challenges.
The array of emerging unconventional oils driven by the investment in new technologies is diverse in terms of resource geographies, make-ups, processing requirements, trade patterns, carbon emissions.
Chinese coal emissions are a major contributor to climate change. Although the Chinese government has pledged to cap coal production and consumption by 2015, more effective policies are needed to reduce the use of coal in the country.
America's energy boost is possibly the biggest geopolitical change to hit the world since China's rise, but the country's leaders must be careful not to neglect real underlying issues or the requirements of long-term growth.
Policy guidance is needed to strike a balance between exploiting new energy assets from unconventional oils and protecting the climate.
The climate conditions in the western United States should serve as a reminder that it is best to be deliberate and prudent on unconventional oil development their larger implications are fully understood.
Technological breakthroughs in energy production are creating access to more domestic oil and gas, generating jobs, reducing the deficit and presenting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to price carbon.