California is the largest consumer of oil in the United States.

Penalizing the oil industry for oil spills is good, since they're not supposed to do that.

But, we can be assured they will always spill the oil, because ... they're the oil industry. That's what they do.
One thing that's interesting about the politics of oil spills is, everyone rushes to talk about how they're going to fine the oil industry, crack down etc.

But nobody talks about the fines in context. So, I shall do so!!

For perspective: Let's take British Petroleum.
BP paid the largest fine ever levied against an oil company for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. That fine: $60 billion.

Sounds like a lot of money, right?

Well, it's about a third of their *annual* revenue from the sale of gasoline. Yes, it packed a punch; but, they covered it.
In almost every case, penalty for oil spills acts as an incentive for oil spills, because oil industry knows a) it's kind of a game of Russian Roulette -- you never know when/where one will happen, and b) unless you're a tiny wildcatter, your revenues will certainly cover it.
Put another way: No major oil company on earth has ever been shut down by either fines or human life/ecosystem damages from environmental crimes.

What does this tell us about efficacy of regulating the oil industry? It doesn't really work!! Oil spills and climate arson continue.
It is not possible to regulate or fine the oil industry to a state of positive environmental outcomes, unless those regulations and fines lead to the actual, permanent shuttering of their operations.

So, what other choices do we have to end oil spills?
I'll start: Californians give the oil industry about ~ $160 million each day, or around ~ $60 billion per year.

So, each year, Californians alone *fully cover* the cost of the *largest fine ever imposed against an oil company.*
IMO, fines work better when the victim is not covering them for the perpetrator. But I think there is some ambiguity here about who, exactly, the perpetrator is.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with (((Matthew Lewis))) is a YIMBY vs Wall Street

(((Matthew Lewis))) is a YIMBY vs Wall Street Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @mateosfo

6 Oct
About 35% of gasoline used by California drivers comes from California, including offshore.

And like rest of US, most cars sold in California are inefficient gasoline trucks & SUVs.

Californians say we don’t want our beaches covered in oil. But we pay to cover them in oil.
If I were a driver who also liked beaches not covered in oil, I would stop paying the car/oil industry to cover my beaches in oil.

Then, the car/oil industry wouldn’t have the money they need to cover our beaches in oil, and would have to stop putting oil on our beaches.
Some people think you can have oil and also have beaches that are not covered in it, but this is not the case. Oil always spills, because the humans who drill for oil always spill it.

And then there’s what happens after you burn it.
Read 5 tweets
5 Oct
I think what’s lost in discourse about “autonomous vehicles” is, in spite of our *conscious choice* to allow drivers to kill and maim millions each year, humans are actually exceptionally *good* at driving cars because our brains are straight up miracles of processing power.
I don’t believe anyone who claims any AV will ever - in any future - match the processing speed, reflexes, object sorting, audio/visual cue analysis etc. of a human brain. Maybe in a model.

But the problem isn’t that humans suck at driving. It’s that we suck at caring.
If we *cared* about safe streets, *we would already have safe streets.*

If we valued human life enough to prevent drivers from killing and maiming millions, *it would already have stopped.*

We don’t need AVs for that. But AVs are not designed to save human lives.
Read 4 tweets
4 Oct
In 1975, Congress passed fuel economy regulations that required all new cars to get 27.5 miles per gallon by 1985. In 1985, the Congressional Budget Office reviewed those standards, and found that existing engine technologies would allow the standards to reach 40 mpg by 1995.
Then in 1991, carmakers inserted an exemption from fuel economy standards in revisions to the Clean Air Act. The exemptions said trucks and SUVs would only have to hit 25 mpg.

So, carmakers started focusing on making trucks & SUVs. Now, 75% of new car sales are trucks & SUVs.
And the fuel economy of those trucks and SUVs?

... 25.7 miles per gallon.

So, after 45 years of fuel-saving technology development, the U.S. car fleet is transitioning from cars that got 27.5 mpg in 1985 to ...

... cars that get 25.7 mpg in 2021.
Read 4 tweets
4 Oct
I wish this were a bigger focus.

Cars don’t have to kill tens of thousands per year. They could be smaller, lighter, and slower.

The car industry has all the tech and design it needs to not slaughter us.

It *chooses to slaughter us.*
Car makers could design vehicles optimized to protect women in crashes. They *choose to skip safety tests for women.* consumerreports.org/car-safety/cra…
Car makers could make cars that can only go the speed limit - instead of 150 mph. They could automatically prevent cars from speeding past schools.

They *choose to sell products that they know will be used to maim and kill children in school zones.* ttnews.com/articles/house…
Read 6 tweets
30 Sep
There's no way to sugar coat or soft-pedal this:

Folks who fight market rate housing on ideological grounds are painting a giant economic crosshairs on the middle class.

If you work in housing, you know this. So, the ones who do this, don't work in housing.
The "affordable for whomst" crowd either doesn't understand this, or they're accelerationists. I think it's mostly the former, since the latter are primarily a bunch of sociology professors who wouldn't know the first thing about how to load a gun.
Most Americans are homeowners, many of those who are not would like to be, and while we should absolutely raise taxes on everyone to build as much low-income, subsidized/social housing as possible, "as much as possible" will still result in years-long waitlists.
Read 6 tweets
30 Sep
I was riding through Berkeley yesterday late afternoon around rush hour and I am quite sure I am not the only one who has noticed:

Drivers have lost their god damn minds. It is total lawlessness and violent aggression on the streets. I have never seen it this bad.
The first psychopath drove right over two barricades with giant “do not enter signs.” Then, I was riding in slow traffic when another driver pulled up on my left - in the wrong lane - and tried to nudge me into parked cars.

I didn’t break his window, but not for lack of trying.
This sort of bullshit happened a dozen times on a 5 mile ride to a doctors appointment.

No cops. No safe streets interventions. Nobody giving a shit about the violence.

Hell, public discourse doesn’t even really acknowledge it as an epidemic of street violence.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(