Proponents of the oil industry in my country says that we need oil for the foreseeable future regardless, so that it is better that we extract it in a "clean" way rather than let it come from fracking or whatever in other countries. But is it actually true that we need oil? Of course there will be a period of transition while we wait for old equipment to be defunct, but if we wanted to, could we not with current technology almost completely remove our dependency on fossil fuels? Even large vehicles could run on hydrogen fuel instead, generated with clean energy such as nuclear and renewables. And there are alternatives like bioplastic and permeable pavement instead of traditional plastic and asphalt. What exactly is stopping us other than momentum and oil execs defending their profits?