I don't know about Lynch, but Yergin won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his book on the oil industry, The Prize. This gives him automatic credibility as an expert on the topic. I don't know of anyone else in the industry who has such good credentials.
Is Yergin to peak oil, as Linus Pauling was to vitamin C?
oooh.

Is Yergin to modern oil, as Woodward is to modern scandals?