Oil slump will not pull plug on electric vehicle sales

Macro events fuel energy debate

Oil's decline is largely irrelevant to the transition to clean energy.

Oil's precipitous decline has sparked the usual arguments about the commercial viability of renewable and low-carbon technologies. The debate highlights some common misunderstandings about what is driving the transition to cleaner energy.  Foremost among them is the notion that changes in fossil fuel prices are a major influence on the energy mix. They are not. Oil is not typically used to generate electricity, so the fact it now costs less is irrelevant to most power producers.  And, in many parts of the world, renewables are so much cheaper than coal and gas that the fossil fu...