spark gap

China has largely insulated itself from the price shocks to oil created by the Trump Administration’s $50 billion quagmire in Iran, partially the product of shrewd management of strategic oil reserves, but also the product of the country’s aggressive investment in electrification. The same cannot be said for the United States, which has witnessed a surprisingly fast amount of backsliding– toward older, less efficient standards, and toward forced petroleum dependency. The demise of the petrostate means the rise of the electrostate.