It seems pretty common for a lot of regions to place all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, and back one resource, with oil being chief among them. When that resource does well, so does the economy of that region, and the people in that region enjoy a time of prosperity. The problem with that is, their livelihood is so thoroughly tied to that one resource that things go downhill fast when it isn't doing so well. It's why those people get pissy when governments cancel their pipelines or drilling projects.
The thing is though, I highly doubt a qualified financial advisor would ever recommend to someone that they invest everything in one stock, but that's essentially what entire towns and cities, municipalities/counties or even provinces/states do. Heck, I'm sure there are some countries that do that, but that is outside of the scope of this discussion. On top of that, they paint everyone who doesn't support their industrial expansion as bad guys. News flash: other regions doing what is right for them is not villainy, even if it's not what's right for *insert region here*.
People from these places cheer when a Conservative government is in power, and cringe when a Liberal government is in, because that significantly impacts their livelihood due to how unstable it is. They're quick to blame others for their problems when they are the ones who refuse to diversify their portfolio or take the right steps to ensure they're on better footing. They also seem to take an out of sight, out of mind approach with environmental issues, where if they don't see it, it doesn't exist as far as they're concerned. I disagree with that sentiment, but it's unlikely they are ever going to care about their planet.
As for oil, I don't think it's going to stop being a lucrative resource anytime soon. Besides, electric cars have some hurdles to overcome before they can replace gas vehicles. They need to be much less expensive, drivers need to get an excellent range out of a charge, charging stations needs to be everywhere, including random stops on the side of highways in the middle of nowhere, and it shouldn't take forever to charge up a vehicle. Only then will they replace gas vehicles, because at that point there wouldn't be any reason for the latter to exist anymore.
That said, I can see that happening in a couple decades, and although oil has plenty of other uses, that industry will still take a huge hit if cars all go electric. There's time for those places invested so heavily in oil to plan a transition to something else. One could argue they've had plenty of time to start planning already, but better late than never. They do have a choice. They could ride the ship they're on until they inevitably go down with it, or they can try and find another to carry them forward. I wish them luck.