Aging & Wisdom Quote by Daniel Yergin

Energy has always been political, but Yergin is flagging something sharper: the return of dread as the default setting. “New age” frames today’s jitters not as a cyclical spike in oil prices or a passing headline, but as a structural condition. The phrase “energy supply anxiety” does quiet rhetorical work. It medicalizes the problem, shifting it from debates about policy preferences to a felt, ambient insecurity that seeps into markets, elections, and household bills. Anxiety isn’t a single crisis; it’s a constant background hum.

The intent is diagnostic and strategic. Yergin, a historian of energy systems, is warning readers to stop treating energy as an invisible utility and start recognizing it as a central vulnerability. The subtext: the era of confident assumptions - abundant supply, predictable trade routes, stabilizing interdependence - has been punctured. The causes are layered and contemporary: geopolitical conflict that weaponizes pipelines and shipping lanes; underinvestment and uncertainty during the transition away from fossil fuels; supply chains stressed by sanctions, reshoring, and climate-driven disruptions; the electrification boom colliding with the slow realities of transmission, permitting, and critical minerals.

What makes the line effective is its careful neutrality. He avoids moralizing about fossil fuels versus renewables and instead names a psychological and institutional reality: when energy feels scarce or fragile, societies accept higher costs, stronger state intervention, and harsher tradeoffs. It’s a warning that the energy transition isn’t just engineering - it’s governance under pressure, with publics newly primed to panic when the lights (or prices) flicker.