The problem with this idea is that it was cheap energy that gave rise to the middle class during the industrial revolution. Energy acts as a force multiplier on

The problem with this idea is that it was cheap energy that gave rise to the middle class during the industrial revolution. Energy acts as a force multiplier on human labor. Without it, you need many more humans to accomplish tasks like farming and construction. And many things just become physically insurmountable. We just wouldn’t have professions like software engineering or even yoga teachers (the way they exist today) without cheap abundant energy. Remember that it was cheap energy that allowed people to migrate and settle in the city of their choice and thus free themselves from the landowning class. With housing costs the way they are in certain cities, this is still relevant today. The solution isn’t to make energy more expensive, but to make things more efficient, and to change where we get our energy from.