Why Electrification Is Europe’s Only Real Hedge Against Oil Shocks

Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are still rising, and Europe is still falling back on the same instinct: worry about supply, brace for higher prices, and revive talk of more domestic oil and gas production. It is an understandable reflex. It is also the wrong one. Europe cannot drill its way out of globally traded fossil fuel price shocks. It cannot wish away maritime chokepoints. And it cannot keep pretending that more North Sea exploration will shield it from crises whose price effects are set far beyond European waters. If Europe wants real…