Jim the Moron wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:17 pm
Some basics:
1. Energy self-sufficiency is a good thing. The U.S. can achieve.
I thought that the US had already achieved that Jim.
Energy self-sufficiency is a good thing only if a country is planning for a long conventional war. The fact that during the Second World War the United States was entirely self-sufficient in crude petroleum was one of its great strengths. By contrast Imperial Japan which had almost no oil production in its home islands was defeated more by the US Navy submarine fleet sinking all of their oil tankers than by the atomic bombs.
By contrast, during times of prolonged peace when oil is traded worldwide it seems to make no difference. The PRC unlike the USA is not a bit self-sufficient in crude petroleum yet its annual rate of economic growth has for decades put America's to shame.
Jim the Moron wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:17 pm
2. The ability for companies to market natural gas and oil overseas is a good thing. U.S. companies are doing so.
Plenty of companies representing traditional oil and gas exporting countries abroad have been successfully doing that for decades (including my own). It would be astounding if the US lacked this particular knowhow.
Jim the Moron wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:17 pm
3. Extracting and marketing fossil fuels creates jobs and tax revenue. It's happening in the U.S.
The "jobs" are mainly during the developmental phase of oil and gas production and are so few in number in relation to total numbers of people employed in other industries as to make no significant different to the unemployment statistics of a country the demographic size of the USA. Once the development phase is completed those jobs go and the number of employees needed to maintain even a large oil and/or gas field in full production are surprisingly few (which is what helps make oil and gas production such a lucrative money earner to the owners of oil and gas wells).