How to fuel the future

America, under President Donald Trump, is securing its “energy independence” with oil and gas. But unlike fossil fuels, renewables will not increase global warming —and China is moving fast. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: Oil moves the world around and creates powerful countries. Oil is such a vital commodity that it provoked wars throughout the 20th century. The few countries that produce it, try to keep control of it to ensure its riches stay at home. Those who do not have it, strive to get it. In the 1930s Saudi Arabia was one of the poorest countries in the world but the discovery of oil transformed it and Saudi Arabia has amassed $515.6 billion in sovereign wealth funds. It has become the linchpin of a powerful cartel that sometimes rations oil to push up prices. The United States is now the biggest producer of oil and gas owing to its shale revolution. It has tapped abundant reserves through fracking - a technology that use