Reply #9: Take a step back and expand your horizons

[GliderGuider]

Say you make it work. You solve all the technical and economic issues, and North America goes electric. Cool.

What happens to the 73% of imported oil the USA no longer needs? Does it sit idle in Saudi Arabia's storage tanks? Does it stay underground? Not a chance. What happens is the price of oil drops to $50 and China breaths a huge sigh of relief as they sign checks to buy it all up to fuel their 10% annual industrial growth.

This strategy may have local advantages in terms of American energy security, but given the global scale of the various problems (particularly demographics, global warming and declining per-capita food production) the overall benefit may be marginal. It will certainly not slow the "race to the edge" that mankind is currently running. Instead, it will speed it up as it enables more global industrialization and economic growth, which is the problem rather than the solution.