Why go to the bother of lofting power supplies and creating lasers when there is a nonstop source of radiant energy at the center of our solar system?

Just create a bunch of mirrors and point them all at the same spot on the side of the asteroid, create the big gas plume, and send it on its way.

I thought the plan was to use up the oil in the rest of the world first, and only then use the oil in North America.

At some point solar power satellites become economically feasible as well.

The DC to DC conversions inside portable electronic devices would get a lot better. All the circuits inside the devices would be more efficient. It might enable some kind of better battery technology also. Room temp superconductor is not going to be able to be produced on a large scale at low price anytime soon after discovery, so transmission lines are the last thing on the list to get made.