Unlike that old pet, the fossil fuel sector’s continued existence is a threat to the foundations of human civilization, and it’s shitting all over the future.ĭeclining investment in oil and gas drilling and export infrastructure is a good thing, in line with the International Energy Agency’s recommendations this spring to stop developing new reserves, end the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035, and phase out virtually all coal- and oil-fired power plants by 2040 in order to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). But continuing to spend a small fortune keeping them alive amid conditions that keep piling up-hoping they’ll return to some dignified quality of life, despite all evidence to the contrary-isn’t doing either party much good. There are moments when they seem like their old self. Those have worked for a while to fend off some catastrophic ailments. It’s a bit like a very old beloved pet whose health has been waning for some time, whose owners have spared no expense on treatments. The world is experiencing an unmanaged-read: unplanned-decline of the fossil fuel sector. It all looks, British author Richard Seymour wrote recently, like “a gathering of apparently unrelated shocks.” Earthquakes caused the Netherlands to shut down its Groningen gas field, which might ordinarily pitch in amid a crunch. and European Parliament have been quick to argue is a cynical bid to extort European support for its Nordstream 2 pipeline. Russian state-owned oil giant Gazprom is only honoring long-term supply contracts to Europe, in what both the U.S. That’s sparked industrial fuel shortages, prompting the government to try and get power flowing by any means necessary. Flooding in China’s biggest coal-producing region, Shanxi, knocked 60 mines out of commission. oil and gas sector since the Great Recession.īut there are other problems, too, both here and abroad: Economies’ boom back from pandemic shutdowns have seen a spate of supply chain issues involving everything from semiconductors to couches, dubbed the “ Everything Shortage” by The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson. For the most part that worked, with higher prices making way for the sorts of costly unconventional production that has dominated the U.S. Among the reasons American consumers are facing relatively high prices right now is that, after years of hemorrhaging investor cash, oil and gas producers treated the shock of the pandemic as a wake-up call to strategically constrain production, allowing prices to rise rather than flooding the market with excess supply. So far, the Biden White House has steered well clear of any challenge to fossil fuel producers. But there’s a reason the fossil fuel industry’s more reliable boosters are repeating it far and wide: If politicians carefully consider their options right now, they could set the stage for a sustainable and shortage-free future-and end fossil fuel supremacy for good. and Europe have eagerly blamed high prices here and shortages there on overzealous government climate policies, green movements, and the now-trendy use of the phrases ESG and net-zero among corporate investors. and gas prices soar in the United States, right-wingers in the U.S. There’s also a lot of opportunistic hype. There’s a global energy crisis, or rather a few different, interrelated ones.
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