Marketplace All-in-One Will this oil shock push the world more toward renewables?
Mar 25, 2026
Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy and energy-market expert. He discusses how oil shocks expose fossil-fuel vulnerability and why electrifying economies can cut exposure. He warns about geopolitical risks in clean-tech supply chains and outlines policy moves like diversification and stockpiles. The conversation asks whether crises can accelerate renewables adoption.
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Global Oil Prices Make Renewables A Hedge
- Oil and gas are priced in a global market so geopolitical shocks transmit widely and unpredictably.
- Jason Bordoff says reducing consumption via electrification and domestic low-carbon generation insulates economies from volatile oil and gas prices.
Clean Energy Creates Different Concentration Risks
- A low-carbon future shifts, not eliminates, geopolitical risk because China dominates many clean-energy technology supply chains.
- Bordoff warns 70–90% market shares in key technologies create concentrated vulnerabilities.
Build Domestic Capacity And Strategic Stockpiles
- Diversify supply chains and build domestic capacity for clean energy technologies to manage new geopolitical risks.
- Bordoff notes U.S. industrial policy and plans for a strategic critical minerals stockpile as concrete mitigation measures.