ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ! ! !
There’s a great article over at http://www.nbcnews.com/... extoling the virtues of the growing North American oil and gas boom, and the resulting benefits of North American energy independence. It is full from beginning to end with the arguments you’re going to hear over the next few years regarding the benefits to American business, American consumers and America in general as production ramps up. So it’s “drill baby drill”, “energy independence” and “jobs, jobs, jobs”, from Republicans and Democrats alike, and a solid base of popular support for “cheap gas” and “cheap energy”. It’s the “future of America” . . .
This will not, of course, pose any problem for our current “foreign” suppliers . . . their output will simply divert to the emerging “new consumer” nations . . . China and India in particular . . . while others like Brazil (in the midst of its own offshore boom) and Indonesia will ramp up their own new production capability. It’s “happy days” in the oil and gas industry, and “sky’s the limit” for future production worldwide. Unfortunately “sky” is where all the CO2 produced when all that new gas and oil is burned is going to go. Into the sky, and the (warming) oceans. Out of sight, out of mind. That’s worked so far, hasn’t it?
While “consumer demand” is certainly the “driving force” (think of all those billions of people out there still wanting their first car) behind all this it is not the only force that will maintain it. All this new drilling and infrastructure is expensive, and that expense is financed, and like those new coal fired power plants being built in China and India (see my diary yesterday) anything financed will be kept in operation at least until the bills are paid. And that's decades, with a capital “s”. Oh, and can I have another pipeline, please?
Which leads, of course, to the inevitable:
450ppm in 20 years? Bet on it . . .