> solar asphalt is hard to imagine with subsidies

Arguably asphalt is exactly the sort of application we should be using petroleum for - keeping it sequestered in earth instead of burning it.

No - asphalt is bound together by bitumen, a sticky, waterproof byproduct of petroleum refining.

eg: You don't get asphalt without bitumen and you don't get bitumen save as a byproduct of a massive amount of fossil fuels being pulled up .. and inevitably increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.