[leptons]

There are alternatives to oil for energy, a lot of them. Helium is unique in its place in the universe, for the properties it possesses as an element. And once it's gone, it's gone. Hydrogen is similar but extremely volatile, where Helium is not volatile.

Helium could be made with nuclear fusion, but a 1 Gigawatt nuclear fusion plant would only produce 200kg of helium per year, so it's still not a viable path to make the quantities of helium we currently use. Current usage is almost 30 Million kg per year.