The continued flow of hydrocarbons is still essential to our economic well-being. When you look down the road and think about how gasoline is slowly decreasing but EVs are also only slowly increasing at what point do those lines sort of cross where renewables gather speed? Well it depends on where you are in the world, China dominates the global production of electric vehicles and of batteries as well as a lot of the metals that are used to make batteries and other modern electronics. We have to be alert to the potential risk of transferring one vector of vulnerability into another one during this transition.
Even though Americans are driving more than ever before, they’re using less fuel to do it. Gasoline demand in the US hasn’t bounced back to pre-Covid levels, and for all kinds of reasons, it likely never will.
In the long run, that will mean relief from high gas prices. But the decline of fossil fuels won’t be quick — or painless. As the oil industry recalibrates to meet the new reality and seeks to maximize profits, we could see price spikes and periodic supply crunches.
Bloomberg journalists Lynn Doan, Chunzi Xu and Millie Munshi join this episode to talk about why gasoline use is trending lower, even as Americans pile on more miles in their cars. And energy analyst Mark Finley of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy explains how diminishing gasoline use could impact not just consumers and companies, but US national security, and America’s relationship with China and the rest of the world.
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