Since World War II, the United States has been an economic and military leader. But more generally, the United States has always been a resource-rich country. As the demands of consumers grew with technology, some Western countries started to realize that they didn’t have adequate resources. Cue renewables, but first, let’s take a look back at history.

A brief look back at history

These demands led to the beginning of the fossil fuel resource wars of the 20th and 21st century. One of the earliest and most striking examples occurred in 1951. Mohammed Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1950 on a platform of nationalizing the British-owned Iranian oil industry. Mossadegh’s platform of nationalizing the Iranian oil industry was a threat to both British interests and the rest of the Western world.

In a joint operation between Britain’s MI6 and the United States’ CIA, dissent was nurtured in Iran. Ultimately, this led to Mossadegh’s overthrow in 1951. This relatively early example of Western interference in fossil fuels is only the tip of the iceberg. Political, economic and military interference in the Middle East, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa would ensue.

As interference continued, the United States began protecting Western pipelines and shipping routes across many other locations around the globe.

Renewables pave the way for exciting developments in energy

The rapidly declining cost and increased accessibility of energy storage create a huge opportunity. Whether solar, wind, hydro, geothermal or any other abundant method are the means for energy generation, the concern of maintaining baseload power becomes less of a concern.

When we are able to store enough energy to meet all the needs of our energy economies on both micro and macro scales, the need for fossil fuels in our energy economy becomes minimal to none. Clearly, the impact of renewables could be massive. The other concern is the fossil fuel demand for plastics. Research and developments are continuing in this space from a variety of diffferent organic and lab-based materials.

As the need for fossil fuels decline, the need for global protectionism and intervention by current fossil fuel consumers lessens. The economic interests of those parties lessens as well, leading to a reduced need to protect fossil fuel-based pipelines and shipping routes.

The energy economy is critical

This leads to foreign policy driven by mutual economic interests that don’t include fossil fuels. The energy economy is essential. Without it, everything stops. And the current opportunity that it presents leads us to a future that is not only more equitable to our environment, but also more sustainable in the long term.

This leads us to the end of the fossil fuel resource war, opening up economic opportunity in new and exciting ways in a distributed energy economy.