The Louisiana Economic Outlook predicts a sunnier job forecast for 2010 and 2011, though the good news didn’t come without caveats.Among the most discussed findings in the report are the “oil patch” areas of Louisiana. Areas where the energy extraction industry, like oil drilling, plays a large role in local economies will continue to suffer setbacks because of proposed energy tax plans by President Barack Obama.”All they had to do is propose [another tax],” Loren Scott, professor emeritus of economics and one author of the report, said of Obama’s proposed $33 billion tax plan on the oil industry. “As long as that’s hanging out there over the industry, you’re not going to have growth in the oil patch of the state.”The Louisiana Environmental Action Network said negative reaction to environmental regulation is nothing new.”Scott can declare gloom and doom, but I haven’t seen that in the last 20 years,” said Kathy Wascom, legislative liaison for LEAN. “I’ve seen a lot of innovation.”Scott said oil companies are fearful of the government repealing tax exemptions and adding any additional taxes. These potential added costs have “chilled” growth in Lafayette and Houma — two energy industry-dependent areas.Additionally, oil companies will pass these extra costs onto consumers in the form of higher gas prices at the pumps, he said.The proof is already in the pudding, Scott said, pointing out “normally Lafayette and Houma would be rocking and rolling” with the current high oil prices.Instead, Lafayette and Houma are expected to add jobs at less than 1 percent through 2010 and 2011 if Obama’s tax plans pass Congress, though Houma is expected to fare better because of recent job additions at Edison Chouest shipyards, according to the LEO.Wascom countered Scott’s expectations and said new energy regulations, like a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system, could create a favorable business environment.She said Louisiana first needs to break its over-dependence on just one industry — an industry she said hasn’t yielded the positive benefits some claim it has for the Louisiana economy.”We have oil. We have gas. We have huge natural resources,” she said. “And yet our state still seems to be of poor state quality, and we still seem to have terrible health and economic problems.”Wascom said new regulations could spurn a wave of innovation in the energy industry, as regulations will force companies to look for more efficient ways to produce energy.”It’s underestimating Louisiana businesses and the people of Louisiana to say they can’t innovate and create,” she said. “There’s a lot of potential here.”Wascom added that the cost of doing nothing could be much worse than anything — calling for Scott to draft an analysis of the cost of pollution rather than the cost of solutions to try and solve it.”We don’t really have any economists looking at the cost of pollution on a community,” Wascom said.The findings in the LEO are based on the assumption the price of oil will increase to at least $85 a barrel during the next two years, a substantial increase over the current price of oil, which is around $70 a barrel — something particularly salient to consumers, who generally bear some of the burden of increased oil prices.Retail gas prices are nowhere near the peak reached in mid-2008, but the price of gas at the pump has increased steadily from around $1.70 per gallon to its current average of $2.70 per gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration.Rya Butterfield, communication studies doctoral student, said she found a place to study within walking distance of campus when she was moving to Louisiana in anticipation of high gas prices and her “limited funds” among other expenses.  “I only use my car three times a week or so,” she said, Taylor Brantley, biology freshman, said he expects the price of gas to increase again, and he is ready to adjust like he did in 2008. “I definitely didn’t drive a lot or drive very fast — to save gas,” Brantley said. —-Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]