Lessons from oil’s past

Today’s policymakers should keep in mind the history of oil and gas as they look to remake the future of energy

Historians like to tell the story of the industrial revolution, with the second phase—the technological age—starting around 1870. Oil barely gets a mention.   With rapid economic growth from innovations around mass production, assembly lines and electrification, hydrocarbons hide in plain sight. But transformations in lighting, then transportation, in petrochemical products like paint and plastics, in improvements in living standards, oil breathed—and continues to breathe—life into the modern global economy.    We could sit back and marvel at the many accomplishments. But the world does not stand still. Instead, this prosperity is often taken for granted in the West and is still sought out b