With the on-going drop in oil prices —down from around $100 a barrel this summer, to below $70 at this writing—I’ve been closely following various assessments of what this means. How long will prices remain low? What impact will this have on the United States’ oil boom? I’ve been curious to see how the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)—the data-collection and forecasting arm of the Department of Energy—might adjust its forecasts in response to the oil price drop. Yesterday EIA issued its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), a monthly report that gives forecasts for the following year or two. The verdict is: Nothing will change. As The Hill put it: “ Low oil prices won’t hurt US drilling, feds say .” Sort of. Below is the price drop so far, and EIA’s expectation that it will persist at least through the end of 2015. Figure 1 Figure 1 This […]