The solution is surprising, but really shouldn't be: government ownership. Mary Anastasia Grady of the Wall Street Journal notes that where governments own substantial shares of oil producers, environmental concerns do not seem to prevent oil field development.Citing Brazil (with its socialistic government), where nobody is stopping development of massive new offshore oilfields, she contrasts that situation with the United States:
...the Brazilian government has a 58% controlling stake in Petrobras's voting shares and 32% of its total shares. This means that some of Petrobras profits go straight to the government's bottom line, giving the politicians more money to spend on bribing their constituents.
In the U.S., Congress doesn't have nearly such a vested interest in a successful oil industry. What good are corporate profits if they go to shareholders, pensioners and employees? Congress has even been denied the windfall profits tax. For American politicians there is a much greater incentive to respond to the concentrated power of the special interest group known as the "greens."
Greens like to pretend they are altruistic, but their allies in government, essential to thwarting the plans the greens oppose, are certainly not.
Bruce Walker anticipated this argument.
Hat tip: Jerome Schmitt
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