Less than two years ago I met an unspecified EU energy minister who was visibly agitated about EU dependence on oil and particularly gas imports, vulnerability to Russian aggression and US fickleness, and who admitted that there simply wasn't a Plan B if, for example, East Asia outbid Europe for declining US natural gas exports in a decade. Of course Europe has essentially infinite solar power potential, same as anywhere else, but they've also straightjacketed themselves there mostly through arcane land use freezes. And now they're attempting to punish oil exporters for exporting the oil they need to keep the dwindling fragments of their economy afloat. This is collective insanity, the sort of thing Elon probably has in mind when he talks about contagious bad memes being the great filter. Let me spell it out. Cheap, abundant energy is all that matters. Allow supply to outstrip demand. Force prices down in a predictable trend over time. Cheap energy covers 99% of governance sins. Cheap energy will allow terrible capital allocation in poorly-conceived social programs to continue indefinitely. Cheap energy breeds a mindset of abundance and optimism that is essential for social cohesion and unity. Expensive energy is poverty and obscurity. There are no rich, energy poor nations.