Imposing a windfall tax on energy companies has the long-term harm of disincentivising investment. However, given the move away from fossil fuels, the consequential negatives are elsewhere. Energy markets are subject to booms and busts, and we just recently saw the oil price drop to below zero. Without the profits made in the good times, energy companies won’t survive the bad. At least not without governmental help that would harm the economy at that time. While renewables and nuclear energy are the future, we’ll need fossil fuels during the transition. Any sensible developed country will wean itself off of fossil fuels gradually. In the meantime, we want the relics of the energy sector to look to the future, and they’ll need money to do so. The intermittent nature of wind, solar, and geothermal power means a constant energy source like nuclear is crucial to a modern energy supply. But nuclear power plants take many years to build - accepting fossil fuel’s role is necessary to get to the promised land of net-zero carbon emission.