Policy Analysis Division
CES's organizational imperative is to continue to strengthen and improve the links
between its informational and analytical resources, as well as those of the wider
university, and the state- and national-level constituencies concerned with energy
issues and policies.
Building and maintaining these links, does not imply that CES's research is one-sided
and promotes a preconceived argument or position. There are many consulting and government
relations companies that are able to provide research and analysis that support any
given case. In contrast, CES' "distinctive competence," in planning jargon, is that
its studies and reports are objective, balanced and credible.
To protect its credibility, CES encourages its staff to publish research derived from
reports in refereed and professional journals and to participate actively in professional
meetings and associations. All studies are under the control of CES and are available
to the public.
Recently completed CES studies have:
- compared local and state tax burdens of oil and gas companies operating in Louisiana
with tax burdens of the other major energy producing states;
- analyzed likely effects on Louisiana's economy of a Btu tax enacted at the national
level, and a refinery, or processing tax enacted at the state level;
- estimated the economic consequences of a larger role for smaller independent producers
in the offshore oil and gas industries;
- ascertained the effects of incentives enacted by the Louisiana Legislature to encourage
oil and gas production;
- measured and compared the safety and environmental performance of oil and gas firms
operating offshore in the Gulf of Mexico;
- evaluated practices and regulations associated with the cessation of production from
offshore oil and gas leases and facilities while organizing and chairing an international
workshop on these issues for MMS;
- outlined the implications for Louisiana of the restructuring of the electricity industry
now underway that is intended to promote competition among suppliers in order to lower
prices and broaden choices for consumers; and
- sponsored a series of six seminars to provide an open forum for objectively discussing
with Louisiana stakeholders (regulators, the electric utility industry, the legislature,
electricity consumers, and academics) a number of issues raised by the restructuring
of the electric utility industry.
- evaluated the argument that all decommissioned offshore oil and gas platforms should
be brought to shore for salvage and disposal.
- forecast a decline in the number of platforms in the federal OCS of about 28 percent
over the next two decades.
- inventoried the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Louisiana and developed
a model that can be used to explore how greenhouse gas emissions would change in response
to different patterns of economic and demographic change over the next two decades.