As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presented a lecture titled "Why Are Fossil Fuels So Hard To Quit?" by Brookings fellow in foreign policy, Samantha Gross.

Fossil fuels are the driver of global climate change and 2023 is shaping up to be the hottest year ever recorded, so the question seems ever more urgent – why don’t we just stop using fossil fuels already? This lecture starts not with the premise that fossil fuels are evil, but that they are useful and have brought us the modern world. This starting point allows us to examine the various properties and uses of fossil fuels to understand how to transition to a zero-carbon emissions economy. We need to change our reliance on fossil fuels, and this lecture offers practical ways to bring about that change, where the greatest challenges are, and how to overcome them.