“Remove export bans on fossil fuels. Natural gas, oil and coal could all crush the petro tyrants and reduce US defense costs.”
Can’t happen at the same time as —
“American energy costs are lower than almost anywhere in the world and only environmental regulation and corporate tax rates keep business out of the US. We could have a massive manufacturing resurgance with these policies.”
I don’t think the public fathoms how much we have. It is an illusion of scarcity.
Environmentalists and energy companies share one opinion: energy is scarce.
Believing this keeps prices up.
The amount of natural gas the US has is nearly incalculable. When you add in the other items I note about Federal land holdings, it becomes even more staggering. Somehow, Canada and Mexico have huge productive fossil fuel export economies but the US has hardly anything?
Untrue.
My list did not include lifting bans on offshore drilling. That would also jack up production. The massive fights over anwr obscure the massive federal control of land resources that serves no other purpose but to crush and prevent economic booms in the US that would bring staggering levels of wealth to the US.
If you look at this map, it is pure madness. We could easily increase energy production— especially when oil is at 95$ a barrel.
Soon trains and major transportation elements will run on CNG and we will be well situated to help ourselves on that front.
The public is barely aware that our initial transitions toward natural gas are already making the US kyoto compliant without even trying or reducing the size of our economy.
Here is another way of seeing the problem.
North Dakota alone wastes enough natural gas everyday to run a major CNG export port globally:
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/north-dakota-gas-flaring-doubles-pumping-co2-into-air-17212
An american initiative to capture and sell such gas would crush Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. It changes geopolitics at a fundamental level.
And that is just one state!