If it is indeed a battle, like you say, infrastructure investment in wind + solar, reliable public transportation, a public health system, and free public education would do us 100x more than playing silly games with China.
Battery tech has more room for improvement than the hard chemical/physical limits of oil.
2) Job creation is a farce. We don't more oil riggers any more than we need more lamplighters and switchboard operators. If you want to ensure everyone has a good quality of life - a basic income looks more promising.[2]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery
[1]: https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/ArthurGolnik.shtml
[2]: https://tcf.org/content/commentary/universal-basic-income-ve...
2.) Job creation is a farce? So lets just give everyone money? We passed NAFTA and destroyed the mid west, 15 years later everyone in those states realized what happened and then voted for Trump. The whole nation was caught off guard by something that was hiding in plan sight. Government policy directly affects where companies put jobs. Ignoring and completely arguing against this is a really radical position.
2.) Yes! Precisely. If you're paying people to dig a hole, then some one else to fill it, why not skip the meaningless labor and just give people the money? It wastes less energy/labor. Obviously we need some people to do important jobs for society, but this is a driving principle behind a universal basic income. It's not about entitlements or free money, it's about what's most efficient for our country. While I'm undecided whether I'd vote for him in the primaries, Andrew Yang is actually doing a great job of educating people on this, I suggest you take a look at his website if this is new to you: https://www.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/. A really good alternative to this would be reducing the hours in the work week.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons [1] https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollecti...