Yea, I agree. But what about the FACT that it's so much denser of an energy source than any battery we have? The straight up truth is that right now, unless there is so amazing innovation, we are going to use every drop. In the short term at least the world's militaries will burn as much oil as they can. Regardless of what you hear in press releases, major industry, military, aerospace will not move from oil until there is a performance reason, not ethical not cost reason to do so.

Batteries aren’t an energy source, they’re an energy storage device.

Guess what? We use oil as an energy storage device. So are you making the argument that fuel/oil is a battery or are you just being pedantic and don’t have a counter the truth that we’re going to use it all - the only question is over what time period.

If we introduce a carbon tax, militaries would have an economic incentive to reduce carbon, just like everyone else.

You believe that? You don’t know that the first exemption would be military and national security?

Crude oil is distilled (refined), not generally burned. The result is several products, all of which are used for different purposes. Naptha is best suited for plastic production; gasoline is a different chemical makeup.

Also, a good chunk of plastic can be produced from natural gas, using ethylene instead of the naptha from crude oil.

One more reason to not refine then burn it!