Consider that the jihadis are all hopped up to kill us based on their claim that we "steal" their natural resources. Yep, at $70 per barrel, the jihadis believe we are stealing it.
So can you imagine how mad the jihadis would be if Moslem countries can't sell us oil for even $10 per barrel because we need it for plastics and limited energy needs? Talk about a conspiracy to impoverish the Moslem world!
Of course, that was back when $70 per barrel was a lot. But the point remains.
So the prospect (tip to Instapundit) of fossil fuel supplies becoming greater than demand might make that hypothetical day closer to reality:
If gas hydrates as well as shale gas, tight oil, oil sands and other unconventional sources can be tapped at reasonable cost, then the global energy picture looks radically different than it did only a few years ago. Suddenly it appears that there may be enough accessible hydrocarbons to power industrial civilization for centuries, if not millennia, to come.
So much for the specter of depletion, as a reason to adopt renewable energy technologies like solar power and wind power. Whatever may be the case with Peak Oil in particular, the date of Peak Fossil Fuels has been pushed indefinitely into the future. What about national security as a reason to switch to renewable energy?
The U.S., Canada and Mexico, it turns out, are sitting on oceans of recoverable natural gas. Shale gas is combined with recoverable oil in the Bakken "play" along the U.S.-Canadian border and the Eagle Ford play in Texas. The shale gas reserves of China turn out to be enormous, too. Other countries with now-accessible natural gas reserves, according to the U.S. government, include Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, France, Poland and India.
Because shale gas reserves are so widespread, the potential for blackmail by Middle Eastern producers and Russia will diminish over time. Unless opponents of fracking shut down gas production in Europe, a European Union with its own natural gas reserves will be far less subject to blackmail by Russia (whose state monopoly Gazprom has opportunistically echoed western Greens in warning of the dangers of fracking).
The U.S. may become a major exporter of natural gas to China -- at least until China borrows the technology to extract its own vast gas reserves.
A pretty amazing possibility, given our recent past. I hope it isn't too good to be true. I have no basis for judging other than the basic understanding that we've never run out of a resource before finding a replacement. I do know that the Carbonistas will be furious (read the comments!) if their justification for telling us how to live our low-carbon lives disappears with cheap energy.
