Every flare-up in the Middle East reminds us how little control we have over the energy that runs our lives. Bar-Ilan University is quietly building the way out.

Every time the Middle East erupts, a driver at a Canadian gas pump feels it almost immediately. It seems absurd – Canada is one of the largest oil producers on earth – but oil is a global commodity, and a global commodity has no loyalty to the country that pumps it.

When a strait in the Persian Gulf is contested, buyers in Asia and Europe bid for whatever oil is left, ours included. A conflict Canadians did not start nevertheless quietly raises the cost of our everyday living. The latest instability in the Gulf reveals an uncomfortable truth: almost no one is truly energy independent.

The instinct, when prices spike, is to parrot a slogan: “Go Renewable”, “Keep it in the Ground”. It sounds good but solar panels and wind turbines only make electricity, and electricity is a minor slice of what oil does: the plastic in our phones, the fertilizer used to grow our food, mascara and make........

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