Benefits
Why the use of fossil fuels when there are alternative efficient electricity?
Drawing back to the 18th and 19th century fossil fuels have been a significant reliance for a lot of our recent history, especially given how rapidly things began to progress and innovate. From the 19th to 20th century what is observed is a potent progression in the sciences and technology, it was the 1850s which made Nietzsche identify that God was dead due to the shift from dogma to inquiry. With electricity innovations began developing one after another, eventually leading to the production and powering of automobiles, ships and aircraft as well as the trains. The four that are largely known as the early and beginning engineering marvels. And today we still continue precisely because of such beginnings, alongside the ever-growing human population and the consumption from such a number.
Reliable energy
Fossil fuels are high in energy density given it's elemental composition, fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas pack a lot of energy into a small volume making them an optimal source of energy and on top of that efficient and reliable. For instance a single ton of coal is able to produce about 2,000 kWh of electricity, with the equal amount of oil (1,000 liters) being able to produce 3,500-4,000 kWh of electricity. Fossil fuels are also one of the more abundant sources of energy, often found in large amounts across the continents, with coal in particular being one of the more plentiful speculated to being able to last decades even at the rate of it's consumption.
Economic reciprocity
Global energy as a whole is largely an interplay between both affordability and infrastructure as well as significant support for millions of jobs globally which alone is a vital economic driver. Essentially acting as a swift complexity of short-term economic benefits in relation to energy demands. Fossil fuels are notably cheaper which allows versatility, in turn countless of investments in fossil infrastructure which results attractively towards energy demands. Given these factors the fossil fuel industry had largely remained dominant, this prolong line of investment towards such means solidifies economic inertia. Global trade sets the overall structure a process of allocation and reallocation, fossil fuels is crucial to international trade and the result is a self sustaining system of beneficial flows from one party to another.
Though one must also take into consideration the broader factors alongside the numerous short-term economical benefits is also the long-term environmental and health costs.