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This article seeks to understand the reasons for Victorian fatalism towards coal dependency – which led to in an inability to abandon this energy – in an effort to better understand what an energy transition would actually entail. The article depicts a providential form of thought in relation to energy at the time, when coal was seen as being a God-given gift that led to world domination: Victorian society was subsequently guilt-ridden due to its waste of coal. How could one imagine a post-coal country without imagining the worst? This tragic vision of the future – there will be no second chance – was based on an understanding of the transition as being connected to the source itself rather than the energy system as a whole.