Beyond the Pale? -- June 21, 2017

Australia:

• Australia is a huge continent with massive amounts of coal and LNG.
• Australia is about to overtake Qatar as the world's largest exporter of LNG
• Australia, 2013, fifth largest producer of coal, world's second largest coal exporter
• Japan: small island-nation with essentially no natural resources necessary for energy production
• Japanese are close to paying less for natural gas than Australians pay for their own natural gas
• Australia will restrict LNG exports due to domestic shortage
• why? decommissioning coal-fired utility plants and replacing them with wind and solar

Hold those thoughts.

Venezuela:

• the proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the largest in the world (2017). Venezuela is now approaching the economies of North Korea and Cuba. 
• why? socialism, corruption

Hold those thoughts.

A reader opines that the US could very likely be another Venezuela in 50 - 60 years as the populism of Bernie Sanders, Pocahontas, and Pelosi catch on. When I first got that note, I thought there was no way that the US could go down the path that Venezuela has gone.

But then when the news about Australia came out, I began to wonder. Australia, like the US:

• is a former British colony
• is very, very educated
• has a very, very strong democratic constitution
• has very strong "western" values

But if Australia, simply by buying into the global warming scam, is now "energy-depleted" one begins to wonder whether there might be some concern about where the US might be in 50- 60 years.

Americans have no idea how fortunate they were when they elected Trump and not Hillary.

But like Barack Obama, it's very possible Trump could be a one-off, and come 2020 or 2024, a non-Trumpian-global-warming-populist could re-ignite the global warming scam, and then yes, it could put us on the road to Venezuela.

It will be interesting to watch Australia, to see if it can, in fact, reverse course. And, if all else fails, fortunately, Elon Musk is waiting in the wings. He has said he could solve Australia's energy problems in 100 days.

By the way, on a side note: looking globally, I am unable to find one country, or one region, or one continent that can now compete with the US on energy:

• Venezuela: a basket case
• Russia: at best, status quo
• Mideast: Saudi Arabia fighting for its very continued existence (economically, politically, militarily)
• Europe: bans fracking; says "no" to fossil fuel; will be only continent totally dependent on imported energy within the next decade
• Canada: can complement US energy but won't out-compete
• Mexico: a niche player
• Africa: say what?
• Britain: see yesterday's story on natural gas (linked above) 
• Norway: a niche player
• Brazil: a niche player