Imagine you have a water well in your backyard. It's a modest sized well and provides enough to meet your basic needs. The trouble is - your needs continue to grow, and your own well cannot satisfy your demand. So you reach out to neighbors, many of whom have far bigger wells, or at least have a lower demand for the same sized well. You convince them (and yourself) that those wells are best utilized to serve you, and talk about all the water from those wells being part of a single "pool".
Now imagine one day when you discover that your well suddenly has a lot more water than you had originally - and you are actually supplied beyond your needs! Once you are over the initial surprise, and excitement, you contact your neighbors to tell them the good news - and promptly inform them that you intend to keep this water for yourself, because it is too precious to put into the pool or give to others who might now need more of it.
Such is the irony that the shale gas boom has created in the US - and if it does end up with restrictions on the ability to export the surplus to level out the price in the marketplace, will severely dent the US' ability to dictate terms to energy and resource suppliers in the future. Of course, one could argue that such hypocrisy is perhaps well known, and in any case, the matter is far from resolved.
But the fact that such a restriction was even considered highlights the deep fear in the US of the dependence on "foreign oil", a phrase that has become as common as "monday morning quarterbacking" in the American lexicon. Energy security is desirable, but it does not come from closing down the borders - the same way that political security cannot be achieved (in the long run) by restricting free speech or emigration.
Now imagine one day when you discover that your well suddenly has a lot more water than you had originally - and you are actually supplied beyond your needs! Once you are over the initial surprise, and excitement, you contact your neighbors to tell them the good news - and promptly inform them that you intend to keep this water for yourself, because it is too precious to put into the pool or give to others who might now need more of it.
Such is the irony that the shale gas boom has created in the US - and if it does end up with restrictions on the ability to export the surplus to level out the price in the marketplace, will severely dent the US' ability to dictate terms to energy and resource suppliers in the future. Of course, one could argue that such hypocrisy is perhaps well known, and in any case, the matter is far from resolved.
But the fact that such a restriction was even considered highlights the deep fear in the US of the dependence on "foreign oil", a phrase that has become as common as "monday morning quarterbacking" in the American lexicon. Energy security is desirable, but it does not come from closing down the borders - the same way that political security cannot be achieved (in the long run) by restricting free speech or emigration.
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