Energy independence bolsters US economic hegemony, leaving China, Europe, and big oil reliant on American pipeline contracts.

Furthermore, efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions could further strengthen the U.S. economic hegemony. Countries currently relying on coal, such as China, will be eventually forced to make significant reductions and as a consequence will seek, among other solutions, to replace coal with natural gas.

The U.S. benefit will be strong, although not impregnable or permanent. It is possible that other countries will follow United States’ example and pursue shale gas and oil. Eventually these countries will succeed in developing these resources. However, until then, they will be saddled with long-term contracts for high-cost natural gas supplies which will be delivered as liquefied natural gas. Additionally, many countries, especially those in Europe, will also be stuck with long-term pipeline agreements for natural gas with prices tied to crude oil.

Howbeit, it is completely wrong to believe that the U.S. experience could be replicated just by importing U.S. technologies. Specifically, United States’ breakthrough was not only achieved through new technologies, but also through the entrepreneurs who were freed from the multinational oil industry’s high-cost yoke and also the development of the financial markets. Therefore, it is not evident that thelarge bureaucratic organizations, such as the state-run oil and gas companies or themultinationals, could replicate the success achieved by the smaller, far more agile firms that caused the U.S. energy revolution. Furthermore, experience suggests that countries like China and major oil companies will not be able to duplicate the success of the American entrepreneurs. Surely, shale gas and oil reserves will be developed elsewhere, but the costs involved will be much higher.

As mentioned before, United States could potentially experience a New American Century due to the fact that entrepreneurs flourished here first and because no other country would have the economic flexibility needed for such a development.

To conclude with, achieving energy independence will revolutionize the United States and the global economies over the next decade. As a consequence, many firms that have played a vital role in the energy sector for the last fifty years will probably diminish in importance or completely vanish. In June 2011, IBM8 , when celebratedits first century of existence, published a remarkable advertisement which said that nearly all the companies which our grandparents admired have disappeared. Additionally, the company expects that in twenty years from 2011 most large firms, which seemed important at the time, will have disappeared as well. According to IBM, it is possible that a person born in Europe or the United States in 2020 will never know about Exxon.