What is the primary benefit of continuing to use non-renewable oil, as opposed to using renewable sources of energy instead? burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which is essentially plant food that will lead to much greater productivity and quality of life on earth. it is not possible to run vehicles on renewable fuels, so there is no way to switch from using oil for that purpose even if renewable sources can be used for other things. oil is cheap and harmless to people and the environment, so it is an excellent source of energy over the long term and there is no need to develop renewable sources. the infrastructure for using oil is already in place and there are costs associated with changing the energy infrastructure.