I like Carter's speech but he cuts right to the point without all the window dressing... I guess folks realized you have to add ample sugar to medicine.
We waste A LOT of energy, [insert hunting out of corolla joke] and we have been once again been brought back to a similar position to the 70s.
Certainly the shale boom has secured our short term energy independence, but it is short term. Especially if we aren't in fact at peak oil consumption. Reserve curves look wildly different depending on usage.
You're spot on with solar and China, there really isn't a one technology to fix it all approach, but that doesn't mean the status quo is tenable.
I think if we are being real, it is in our (US) best interest to become a large energy exporter, that means doing everything we can to reduce consumption, to develop alternatives, and to build export infrastructure.
I'd be a proponent of a pipeline out of the Marcellus + LNG terminal, a new west coast terminal, but then also a lot more residential solar, nuclear, fuel efficiency standards and EVs.
There is an incredible amount of BS in the energy conversation; NE is ostensibly full send on Green, but at the same time still using fuel oil instead of NG, even though the one of the largest gas fields in the world is right there, simply converting everything to gas (domestic + electricity generation) would reduce our carbo foot print dramatically and actually help us hit Paris Climate accord targets.
So in fact more OG on the east coast is actually the "climate" solution.
I like Carter's speech again, because it was pragmatic... at a time before the Bakken and Shale it was pro-coal.
Not sure I totally agree with the Rice bros on everything, and I think the presentation oversells the idea a bit (fossil fuels are in fact not renewable and limited) but I think this slide conceptually is spot on.
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