Good News from the Rocks

The United States EIA (Energy Information Administration) says the world's recoverable gas resources are up 40%. This is global good news, kind of. Here's why.

Energy = prosperity + stability
There's a positive correlation with a country's access to energy (combined with its consumption thereof) and stability. This is common knowledge, although not many folks know it. In the U.S., we are consumed with conserving energy rather than producing and using it for our own benefit.

If you can get through the report, a government study shows that a nation's stability is affected by economic growth...
...which is brought about by improved infrastructure and production,
...which is brought about by energy consumption,
...which is brought about by energy access and availability.

Political factors come into play as well. But the big driver for stability in this unstable world is energy.

Health: personal, global, economic
Further good news for the world says,

"energy consumption per capita had a positive influence on both global health, as measured by life expectancy, and economic health, as measured by GDP per capita.

A [300-gallon-oil-equivalent] increase in energy consumption... increases life expectancy by 2.3 years... and GDP by $1,300 [all measures per capita]."

Plentiful global gas
The EIA report went on to say that gas resources exist in most countries of the world. It's tied up in the rocks of shale deposits. The world is awash in gas, and most countries will produce it for their own economic growth, except, of course, us.

Colorado shale
On the report's world map showing where those resources exist is a blob in the Rocky Mountains. This is Colorado shale. Extracting the energy in those rocks stopped before getting started. And it hasn't started up in earnest since, for the environmentalist furor against producing our own.

Use it or lose it
As we see China's economy growing by leaps and bounds while sub-Saharan countries wallow in poverty, I can't help wondering why some countries bring to bear all their resources for growing prosperity and others don't. America is among the "don'ts," preferring to progress backwards.

So, all that good news about gas...well, it's staying right there in the rocks.

Sources:

http://www.aeaiinc.com/reports/Energy_and_Country_Instability.pdf

http://blogs.forbes.com/williampentland/2011/04/06/u-s-raises-global-gas-resource-estimates-by-40/?partner=yahootix

http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/pdf/fullreport.pdf