Oil spill optimism: Keeping some perspective

But we need to keep our perspective. We can’t, for example, let people with an agenda use the Gulf spill to bludgeon either the petroleum industry as a whole or free enterprise in general. Free markets and environmental consciousness are not incompatible, after all. Freedom to trade is not the freedom to despoil or push costs onto others. Free markets depend on institutions that protect people and property from harm–especially harm caused by polluters. Besides, no oil company has any incentive, short term or long – to let spills happen. Even if they cared only about their profits, no profit comes from spilling precious resources. 


Energy as Economic Lifeblood

We need energy more than ever. If we are to grow out of this lingering recession, we’ll need to fuel the recovery. Yes, BP will have to pay for the mess it has made. As it does, it may even fail as a company (unless it gets bailed out). So be it. But in the slow, agonizing process of cleaning up the Gulf and making those affected whole, we must keep our heads about us. The environment will heal. People will be compensated. Lawsuits will punish those responsible for the harm. That’s how things works. Indeed, this event should create a new impetus for companies to implement new safety measures without a heavy regulatory hand. Indeed, there is no need for government to come in with its blunt instruments that will do little but raise energy costs. (Instead, the feds should lift the liability cap for oil companies, as Tim Carney argues here and here–i.e. do less. Big Oil would then have the greatest incentive to be good stewards, but still be considered innocent till proven guilty.)

Consider some facts about energy and the environment:

• Before this unfortunate oil spill, the frequency and magnitude of oil spills had gone down nearly every year since the Exxon Valdez spill. (See also here, here and here.)
• Offshore exploration for natural gas is far safer per unit of energy produced for the environment than offshore windfarms, which – if struck by hurricanes – are likely to spill lubricants into the ocean (and kill migratory birds).
• Pollution due to petroleum use (both cars and factories) has gone down, down, down in the US and Europe since a peak in about 1980 (despite twice the number of cars on the road). The environment is cleaner than it has been in a century — on almost every metric.

Now, let’s click back another order of magnitude for a look at the global-historical picture.

The Rational Optimist

The indefatigable Matt Ridley can help–and just in time. Ridley has a new book called The Rational Optimist for a dose of just the kind of glass-half-full information we need right now. This includes a bright view of energy, environment and the free market. Consider this video short about how relatively free markets and new technology have made us greener (almost by accident):

Economic development means wealthier is healthier for us and the environment. But it’s not just that wealth allows us to afford to be green. It also means we live better lives than the kings of Europe could have imagined:

Radical environmentalists will say that consumption is destroying the planet. They spend lots of money spinning Malthusian nightmare scenarios for the media. But Ridley’s book is a powerful antidote to the gloom-n-doom-mongering of the hard left. He shows, with scads of evidence, that the relationship between wealth and health is more than correlation. (If you liked Genome and Nature via Nurture, you’ll love the Rational Optimist. He has even started a companion blog.) Ridley thus joins the ranks of greats like Julian Simon and Bjorn Lomborg in debunking eco-pessimism–including that associated with climate change.

Keeping Our Perspective

Just when it seems like government was consciously making a mess of the economy with its policies — and folks are getting wise to it — a private-sector company messes up big. But accidents will happen. Progress has a price. BP will pay. In the grand scheme, we cannot let our energy sector and private markets be handed over to those bent on destroying that which they neither created nor fully comprehend. Energy – even oil – has given us tremendous prosperity and well-being, the big spills notwithstanding. The Gulf Spill is going to hurt, to be sure. But we and our environment will be far worse off if we let this event be an opening for those bent on destroying free enterprise.

We should look forward to a day when a new form of clean, cheap energy finally replaces fossil fuels, as fossil fuels replaced the use of whale oil. We can also look forward to the days when even China, India and the developing world get cleaner and greener as the US and Europe have.