(Article changed on December 4, 2013 at 04:48)
(Article changed on December 3, 2013 at 05:37)
The
U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil producer by 2015, and be close to energy self-sufficiency in the next
two decades, amid booming output from shale formations, the IEA said. Bloomberg Nov 12
Well, I guess that means every thing will be just fine. We'll have plenty of cheap fuel to drive gas-guzzlers and lots of walking around money from out new status as oil suppliers to the world. We might even have enough money to fund health care, Social Security, and fix our collapsing infrastructure. There's just one catch. But first, here's some more good news.
Tim Johnson of McClatchy just wrote an excellent article outlining the geopolitical implications of our new energy wealth: "Rise of Saudi America will alter globe, prolong U.S. superpower role." Nov. 28. Rather than a slow decline from superpower status, Johnson makes the case that the rise in domestic shale oil production plus sought after U.S. oil industry services and technology will sustain the U.S. as a dominant superpower.
Dependence on Middle East oil will soon be a thing of the past. Johnson suspects that will make disasters like the Iraq invasion, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria a thing of the past. The shale oil boom, according to Johnson, has us fat and happy, counting our dollars from energy exports rather than bringing democracy (aka military action) to oil producing countries.
There's just one catch
The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the official international
organization studying the impact of carbon dioxide (C02) on the
climate. The group is a consensus organization of scientists and known
for caution in the past. However, a leaked version of IPCC's upcoming report offered dire predictions
for the rest of the century. Food shortages, frequent extreme weather
events, urban flooding due to sea level rises, etc. coming our way in 20
to 40 years, depending on efforts to slow things down.
Around the same time the IPCC report was leaked, Nature Magazine published an landmark study showing how extreme temperatures will become the norm as early as 2020, in sub equatorial regions. If nothing is done to stop these changes, the study authors say that southern Indonesia will feel the impact first with increased temperature "affecting every living thing" starting in 2020. Mexico, Nigeria, and Central America are next in 2030. In our globalized economy, it is not likely that the U.S. will escape the impact of the eco-meltdowns, e.g., infectious diseases.
These projections do not account for the rapid exploitation of shale oil starting in the next year or so. Why is this a problem.
Experts estimate that "full-fuel-cycle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from oil shale derived liquid fuels are likely to be 25 to 75% higher than those from conventional liquid fuels, depending on the details of the process used." Regulations is behind the curve, as usual. The promise of Saudi America outstrips planning and prudence.
The 2040 date for major the world altering impacts of climate change (absent preventative measures) is based on conventional gasoline. Each major increment of shale oil gasoline used will move up the disaster dates the IPCC report outlined.
We're number one
The United States will lead the world in shale oil exploitation. It will provide many of the shale rich nations with superior extraction technology to accelerate a switch from conventional to shale oil based gasoline. The world will be awash with toxic fuel and some in the a few in the U.S. will make a fortune.
A lot of good it will do them. The new wealth and technologies for shale oil production won't change the laws of physics and chemistry. The new wealth can't buy more capacity for CO2 in the atmosphere, which is about at its limit. We will cook the planet as we substitute one form of CO2 production with a form five times as toxic. There's only so much CO2 the atmosphere can accumulate before the impact of climate change become permanent.
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