Petroleum industry associated with wild price swings and armed conflict
Climate scientists have been clear that if we want to reduce carbon emissions and slow the pace of global warming, one crucial step is moving from a transportation system run on fossil fuels to one powered by electricity. But it’s possible that doing so might neutralize other toxic aspects of the petroleum industry, such as volatile prices and armed conflict.
“The ability to electrify transportation and get off combusting fossil fuels, and oil specifically, means we would solve massive geopolitical problems, which have been just a plague for the last 100 years,” said Adam Scott, executive director of Shift, a Toronto-based charity that advocates for sustainable investing.
Oil has always been an impetuous commodity, susceptible to wild price swings owing to a variety of economic and political factors. But between the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the last couple of years have been especially nervy.
On one day in April 2020, the price of a barrel of oil briefly went negative (-$37 US). Since then, it’s flirted with all-time highs, reaching $119 last month. And consumers feel it when they fill up.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/electric-vehicles-oil-transition-1.6434080