Putin's leverage shows the danger of relying on fossil fuels

In the wake of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, the world needs a massive international effort to liberate democracies from their dependence on oil produced by Moscow and other dictatorial regimes.

In short, the world's democracies need a green energy Manhattan Project, patterned after the no-holds-barred World War II-era effort to harness the power of the atom.

Unlike that famous nuclear program of decades ago, a modern-day effort should focus on the widespread production of green energy, leveraging the West's technological ingenuity and industrial might to usher the region into a future free of the influence of petrostates.