heating is a much better use for gas than generating electricity. And cooking is the noblest of all uses. I expect that when gas has become rare and expensive, people will be prepared to pay a premium to cook with it, just as i will be happy to buy diesel for my camper van in 20 years, at whatever the price is.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

I've been looking through IEA numbers for electricity generation. It's always suprising to see how much natural gas, and petroleum, is used to make electricity in big oil exporters.

Oil-fired electricity seems to be an even greater waste than gas fired production.  At the very least in economic terms.  

It seems to me that a program to introduce windpower in bulk to these countries would free an enormous amount for oil for the world market. Venezuela has made moves towards this, but I'm not sure that there has been a lot of effort in other countries.

Venezuela burned through the equivalent of 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to produce electricity in 2009. Think of it this way.  A single 3 MW wind turbine operating at 35% capacity saves the equivalent of over 5600 barrels a day if replacing oil-fired production. A 1GW wind farm would save the equivalent of 5,000 barrels a day. Driving out oil-fired production, on an annual basis, would require just over 1730 3 MW turbines. Coupled with hydro in the country, you could free a lot of oil for export.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg