, Columnist
Switch to Clean Energy May Mean Subsidizing the Dirty Kind
Countries will have to ensure that refineries stay in business even after they’re no longer profitable.
Sales of electric vehicles in Britain have taken off.
Photographer: Miles Willis/Getty Images EuropeThis article is for subscribers only.
The word “transition” has an alluringly smooth quality to it, like the passing of a baton between Olympians. The energy transition is nothing like that. It is the taking of a hammer to a vast, Rube Goldberg-esque squiggle of pipes and wires and what have you — while still depending on that squiggle to work 24/7 for years to come. There will be issues.
An immediate, and growing, risk is that assets may be stranded long before they cease to be useful.