Well, regarding "and sit on their hands in the darkness and starve, is not realistic because they simply won't do that." , it might not be a matter of "choice" at all ...

Whether an energy is "clean" or not, whatever that means, the use of it is by definition not clean, energy is our power to act on/transform the environment : the vast amount of energy that fossile fuel today provides, is what allows to build roads, houses, fish the whole oceans, cut forests like crazy, etc