What we get when the government shouldn't or can't protect us

Earlier in the week I wrote about an essay by Terrence Heath that said the GOP doesn't want a government that would come to the aid of the common citizen and hold large corporations accountable for the messes they make. So what would we have if the GOP had its wish? In a related essay Heath shows us.

Exhibit A: The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, in which ExxonMobil fought for 20 years, spending a half billion dollars in legal fees so that they only had to pay out a half billion dollars in compensation. If I have this right the company saved about a billion and a half in denied claims. And even $1.5B was peanuts compared to their profits in the year they settled. It was also peanuts compared to what the area needs to recover. What we get when the government shouldn't protect the citizens.

Exhibit B: The Niger Delta in Africa, where oil companies do nothing about environmental protection and don't worry or care when oil spills. Total over the last 40 years is about 5 times larger than what's been dumped in the Gulf of Mexico over the last 3 months. The area is the world's oil pollution capital. This is what we get when the government can't protect its citizens.

If the oil companies were forced to clean up after themselves oil would easily cost $200 a barrel instead of the current $75 (I wonder what the cost would be if Big Oil was simply forced to run their operations in an environmentally responsible manner, my guess would be more than $75 but much less than $200). Put it another way, somebody is paying that $125 per barrel. It ain't oil companies and it ain't Americans. Think of where alternative energy sources would be if we paid the true cost of oil out of our pockets.