CRUDE AWAKENING

Conflict in the Middle East could accelerate a global reckoning for oil—and a fresh push toward renewable resources

- BY MATTHEW TOSTEVIN

"THERE ARE CERTAINLY SOME THINGS FOR WHICH OIL REMAINS INDISPENSABLE AND THAT INCLUDES WAGING WAR."

BENJAMIN LOWY/GETTY

IN THAILAND, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS have been ordered to work from home, stop wearing suits to cut air-conditioning use and skip foreign trips, all to save energy; Pakistan's government has shifted to a four-day work week; Bangladesh is closing its universities;

Vietnam has sent out an order for everyone to increase fuel efficiency.

Countries in Asia and around the world are scrambling in response to surging oil prices. Markets are responding to attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel and even greater fears that prices will rise further and hold there, as Iran effectively shuts down oil exports through the choke point Strait of Hormuz and attacks energy installations in Gulf Arab countries.

The answer is simple: Stop using oil if you can.

Oil's obituary has been written prematurely before but, in fact, production has continued to increase over the decades. Nevertheless, every time there is a jump in oil prices, it forces a new look at how to use less oil—and how to reduce reliance on a commodity whose price still depends on the fortunes of a particularly unstable region.

That reinforces a very clear long-term shift toward alternative energy sources for simple reasons of economics and security, rather than fears over climate change.

But it has the knock-on effect of boosting a renewable energy industry scorned by Trump, with his championing of what he once referred to as “very, very pure, sweet, beautiful oil” and his exhortations to U.S. oil producers to “drill, baby, drill” as he seeks to remove barriers to higher output.