The most recent spill by Duke Energy in Eden, N.C.
highlights a ‘soft’ spot in the U.S.’s economic system that reinforces the
argument for stringent oversight of energy companies throughout the country.
Rules and regulations have been set in place across federal, state, and local
governmental levels to prevent the types of spills that residents on the border
of North Carolina and Virginia now must confront. What was lacking
was proper oversight by Duke Energy and the North Carolina Department of
Natural Resources and Environment.
To say that the U.S. system of economics has flaws is merely
to state that it is a human construction liable to the same human errors of its
creators. Environmental
laws were created to address the flaws within the U.S. economic system,
flaws that require constant oversight to achieve their stated ends: to protect
and promote human and environmental health for current and future generations.
Duke Energy, like every other player in the U.S. energy
market, is under pressure to keep their costs as low as possible while
increasing revenues. As a consequence, activities and objects which eat up
profits can be neglected, as was the case with the coal ash that was improperly
contained by Duke Energy. ‘Proper’ containment would have been a considerable
investment with few, if any, short term returns that the company could put on
its balance sheet. For the surrounding community as a whole, however, the benefits
of environmental regulations have benefits that outweigh the costs.
When the issue is confronted from its root, it’s easy to see
that Duke Energy’s actions are a direct result of the economic incentive
structures that presently exist in our country. We can look away or pretend
that a new CEO or law without stringent enforcement provisions will somehow
eliminate the perverse economic incentive to disregard costly environmental
management best practices, but coal ash spills and train derailments with
thousands of pounds of leaking toxic chemicals will remain.
Oftentimes, the issue of economic growth and environmental
protection has been discussed in competing terms, as if protecting the
environment inherently restrained economic growth. But there is no law of
nature that states environmental protection shall inhibit economic growth.
In the short term, environmental protection may burden
economic growth, but there is no gain where there is no pain, as the saying
goes. Unfortunately for the residents who looked to the Dan River for drinking
water and aesthetic beauty, the pain of a sullied body of water is very real, and
there is little gain to be found.
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