The raging controversy over the E20 fuel blend highlights the need for energy conservation in the wake of the US-Iran conflict. The agitation hinges on the fact that petrol now being supplied to consumers is blended with 20 per cent of ethanol. The concerns are despite automobile manufacturers and experts repeatedly clarifying that the blended fuel will not damage vehicle engines in the long run, and would only marginally reduce fuel efficiency. The public discourse over the ethanol blending issue continues unabated even though several countries, including Brazil, routinely use such blended petrol.

The increasing use of ethanol, a by-product of sugar production, has many plus points. It provides additional revenue to both sugarcane farmers and producers and is also more environmentally friendly compared to pure petrol.  What is even more important is that it will enable this country to save huge amounts of foreign exchange expended on crude oil imports. It is actually just one of the many ways in which energy conservation needs to be carried out to meet this country’s fuel needs in the long run.

The West Asia conflict has highlighted the enormous dependence on imported fossil fuels to power the economy. The fact that over 85 per cent of the country’s crude oil needs are met through imports is usually cited in this context. But the reliance on imports for meeting energy needs is actually much larger when one takes other components of the energy mix into account, including natural gas and coal. About half of the country’s natural gas needs are being met from abroad. This is in addition to roughly 20 per cent of coal consumption and over 95 per cent of coking coal needs.

In other words, the economy has been bearing a heavy burden of foreign exchange outgo owing to imports of fossil fuels. The cost of oil imports alone is pegged at 135 billion dollars for 2025-26. This covers a period when the average international crude price was about 65 to 70 dollars per barrel. The war between the U.S. and Iran, however, has pushed up oil prices to exorbitant levels.

Currently, the benchmark Brent crude has hardened to around 88 dollars due to the resumption of hostilities between the two countries. The brief respite during which the conflict seemed to have died down had brought prices down below 75 dollars per barrel. Even so, the last four months of the West Asian conflict have seen oil prices frequently crossing the 100-dollar mark.

Such levels are not sustainable for emerging economies like India. Energy conservation is thus the need of the hour. This approach had been sidelined for many years, barring lip-service by way of publicity campaigns by oil marketing companies. It is now time to seriously evolve a multi-pronged strategy for efficiency of fuel use and energy conservation by adopting new technological advances.

🚨 HUGE

NITIN GADKARI announces ETHANOL-OPERATED stove technology.

By mixing 7% water in ethanol, a stove-like flame can be generated 😳

He says it is CHEAPER than conventional commercial fuel. pic.twitter.com/1nkgHJhr4Z

— The Analyzer (News Updates🗞️) (@Indian_Analyzer) May 24, 2026

Another critical step towards conservation is moving towards electric vehicles, as the transport sector is the biggest guzzler of fossil fuels. It accounts for nearly half of the country’s total petroleum products consumption. While there is no doubt that the government has launched several schemes to promote the use of EVs, a much bigger push is required in this direction to reduce the scale of oil imports. The case of China is illustrative in this regard. It has taken to the electrification of all modes of transport.

Among the measures that China adopted is to provide substantial financial support for EV producers while enterprises that continue to produce vehicles requiring fossil fuels face penalties. Similarly, both the central and provincial governments are reported to provide subsidies for consumers exchanging old vehicles based on internal combustion engines with new EVs. Government funding is also provided to public and private sector enterprises to ensure that an extensive charging grid is created in rural and urban areas. In the absence of such networks, it is difficult to promote EV sales. In fact, the lack of a countrywide network of charging stations has been one of the hurdles to increasing EV sales in this country.

Many people believe ethanol blending is just an experiment unique to India but global facts tell a completely different story.

America uses E10 nationwide and is moving toward E15 while Brazil has used E27 for years and is shifting to E35.

Under the visionary leadership of… pic.twitter.com/2aFfKabsYp

— गुरुकुलम (@Gurukulam2024) July 22, 2026

In contrast, EVs now account for over 50 per cent of new passenger vehicle sales in China. In addition, heavy-duty trucks are moving towards electrification. Rail and metro networks are also being expanded rapidly. The result is that after two decades of high oil consumption, demand is now reported to be on the decline. One of the reasons that oil markets have remained subdued despite the revival of the US-Iran conflict is the steep fall in demand from a country that has been the world’s biggest importer till now.

This is a template that India clearly needs to adopt with greater zeal than it has till now. In the case of government transport, for instance, much more needs to be done. With as many as 8.5 lakh government vehicles on the roads, the drive towards electrifying them is not moving fast enough.

On the plus side, however, there has been progress made in moving away from fossil fuels in other mass transport segments. Notably, the Railways, the biggest public transport network, has shifted gears and is nearing 100 per cent route electrification. This reduces the reliance on high-speed diesel to a large extent. Latest reports of a train powered by hydrogen fuel cells are a significant measure towards cutting the use of fossil fuels in transport. The only exhaust produced in this train is pure water vapour and heat. The existing pilot project in Haryana could end up being the future of train travel.

This brings us to the distribution of ethanol-blended petrol. In this case, there is no denying that petrol blended with ethanol is enabling a significant reduction in oil imports, at a time when these must be brought down as quickly as possible. Given geopolitical tensions that do not seem to be subsiding soon, oil prices may continue hardening in the coming months. The cost of importing oil is thus set to rise in the medium and long term. This could ultimately serve as a hurdle to India’s growth in the medium and long term.

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As far as renewable energy capacities are concerned, there is no doubt that these have been built up faster than envisaged earlier. Expansion of solar, wind and green hydrogen capacities is bound to bring about a reduction in the need for imports of crude oil, natural gas and coal in the long run. To meet the immediate crisis, however, other measures are needed to ensure that demand for fossil fuels is reduced significantly. These will have to be in the area of energy conservation so that India can tackle this energy shock efficiently.

The author is a veteran journalist and writes on economy and international affairs