"The positive externalities far outweigh the negative ones." I'm simply saying we should transparently price the cost of drilling operations to include end-of-lifecycle operations and we should not allow drilling companies to extract without fronting some part of the cleanup costs. The EPA is already managing thousands of superfund sites because the US legal system for corporations is designed to limit liability and what this article is talking about is liability exceeding all of the profits (which implies the drilling site owners will do some asset-shifting + shell bankruptcy games).
One analogy might be how California requires car drivers to have a minimum insurance to financially protect other drivers in case of collision. Insurance companies already have methods for determining likely risk (eg. a drill site in suburban Los Angeles is much higher risk of negative effects on humans than a rural desert in Texas).
"Society can't function without cheap energy." Prove it. I would argue that society functions fine at the market rate of energy. When you say "cheap energy", I get the feeling you advocate for subsidies, which are just ways to obfuscate that we are all paying more than the number we see on our electrical bill.
"instead of moving to nuclear" It's funny you mention nuclear. I've seen estimates that nuclear isn't cost competitive with other current electric generation if you include the actual cost to build, the insurance required, the likely events (eg. 1-in-100-year weather events), and the cost to safely dispose of all byproducts.
That said, I support nuclear power and wish we (USA) could build it at scale, but away from densely populated regions. I think nuclear is actually cheaper if the negative externalities of oil/gas energy generation (including toxins, carcinogens, and airborne pollutants) are factored into the costs.
One analogy might be how California requires car drivers to have a minimum insurance to financially protect other drivers in case of collision. Insurance companies already have methods for determining likely risk (eg. a drill site in suburban Los Angeles is much higher risk of negative effects on humans than a rural desert in Texas).
"Society can't function without cheap energy." Prove it. I would argue that society functions fine at the market rate of energy. When you say "cheap energy", I get the feeling you advocate for subsidies, which are just ways to obfuscate that we are all paying more than the number we see on our electrical bill.
"instead of moving to nuclear" It's funny you mention nuclear. I've seen estimates that nuclear isn't cost competitive with other current electric generation if you include the actual cost to build, the insurance required, the likely events (eg. 1-in-100-year weather events), and the cost to safely dispose of all byproducts.
That said, I support nuclear power and wish we (USA) could build it at scale, but away from densely populated regions. I think nuclear is actually cheaper if the negative externalities of oil/gas energy generation (including toxins, carcinogens, and airborne pollutants) are factored into the costs.