Our children will have to live in a world without fuel so why are we still drilling?

We a choice, offshore oil drilling near coastlines and drilling in general  or a clean energy economy that would stop global warming. A sustainable and clean future instead of pursuing false solutions that jeopardize our natural richness. The solutions for our future can't be analysis with short-term projection based on cost/benefit analysis.


The issue of drilling involved not just risks but also total incertitude on the after drilling, "placing a price tag on the environment involves serious ethical and philosophical consideration". Natural capital is a large part of the national economic wealth and should be counted like human capital in economical analysis.


Drilling along Florida coast is analyzed by his supporters with a cost-benefit analysis approach. The problem of this calculation is that the benefit is only the one of oil companies and they are at the opposite of the people benefit.  The monetary benefit of oil companies and the long term benefit of people and future generation is not the same.The cost of drilling for an oil company is a matter of monetary investment, for people the cost is not measurable in dollar but in social, health, ascetic, educational, environmental and natural heritage parameters. As a scientific fact, “the reserve of oil and gas will be largely depleted within 50 years”


The oil companies can drill and make us pay the high price of any non-renewable declining commodity, a clean cut benefit for them. Oil companies do not even create good jobs for the local community because they consist on short-term job market just for the time of the drilling operation. At the opposite, the environmental damages are not going to be eliminated as fast as the jobs or the drilling platform, environmental damages can be irreparable if animal species or coral reefs are harmed. The failure to add the price of environmental damages of oil drilling to the cost/benefit analysis is part of a short-term approach that can cost unknown monetary sum to future generation.


In economics, "value is considered to flow from our desires and preferences", thus, the question is, are we talking about desires of oil companies and preferences of politicians for their campaign funding? Or, are we analyzing people and future generation health and sustainable future?   It seems inconsistent to alter our assessment of long-term environmental problems based on current interest rate fluctuations arising from financial markets that have little to do with the environment”.




References:
Harris, Jonathan (2006). Environmental and Natural resource economics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin