Which demands it be entirely foolproof, because it only takes one guy in a boat with a bomb to take out the whole shebang. And you better make sure all those hundreds of klicks of pipeline and drilling infrastructure is also secure. No one wants a sizeable US force in their back yard, ergo, the gas goes to someone easier to supply and with less risk at any uprising e.g. China.CC wrote:
Then the US stations some patrol cutters in the area and mounts a few HMGs and grenade launchers on LNGs while they're in danger areas. Problem solved. Heck, odds are that the tankers themselves will mount the weapons at their own expense if its a problem.
Oil shale is bunk. I've been over this in previous threads, in summary, it won't meet your needs now and it won't meet them in the future. You'd be lucky to run the US military off what they could produce, and that's assuming you don't run out of fresh water and gas first needed to produce it.Correct me if I'm simply misreading you on this, but the world's largest coal and oil shale deposits are within the United States. Come to think of it, the Federal government owns about three quarters of US oil shale and potentially could finance much of the budget through revenue on that oil shale should oil shale pick up.
You peaked in coal energy production in '98. You now have the world's largest fields of crap coal. It can be used, but it's rather pitiful in return compared to the nice bituminous stuff you were burning years ago. Once past a certain point, even digging up the rest of the lesser lignite deposits won't be worth it, even if economically viable.