The Costs of Oil Are Higher than They Appear

Here at 2GreenEnergy, we talk a great deal about “externalities,” a term economists use to mean costs or benefits (usually costs) that affect a third party not directly involved in an economic activity.

The first thing that comes to mind when we think of our dependence on oil is the fact that the fossil fuel industry is immensely profitable, but only because they are able to use the Earth’s atmosphere as their own private sewer. The costs of reversing climate change, as an example, are overwhelming, but they’re being completely ignored.

Suggested at left is the concept that another important externality of Big Oil is war.  The U.S. defense budget is nearing $1 trillion annually, which enables us to destroy anyone or anything that may impede ExxonMobil and the rest from accessing oil anywhere in the world.