China’s Shale Boom Was Over Before It Began

China is caught up in a very delicate balance. Beijing is being forced to walk a very fine line to keep up with growing energy demand while also shoring up the country’s energy security, and all without compromising the entire world’s ability to decarbonize quickly enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. So far, it looks like Beijing is struggling--if not outright failing--to pull it off. Despite the blow that China received as the first country to struggle with the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country achieved the amazing…