I Hate to Admit This

I'll have to whisper it: there's actually something to be said in favor of socialism. According to The Wall Street Journal:

I have another theory. And mine fits the pattern of resource development – or lack thereof – all over the Western Hemisphere. It comes down to this: Where government has the property right, restrictions on development tend to be low. But when the private sector is the owner, environmental concerns blossom.

Does this mean the only way to get offshore oil drilling outside the Gulf of Mexico is to set up municipal oil companies?

On the other hand, maybe the investors could be the real rulers of American society: the universities. They're nearly immune to criticism nowadays and they're greedy enough to be attracted by $130 oil.

On the gripping hand, university investors might make more sense for nuclear power plants and nuclear waste recycling. Anybody protesting nukes inside the universities would have to deal with the secession of the physics and engineering departments and the potential erasure of the “Republican war on science” meme. There are openly pro-nuclear people inside the universities with no fear of being sent to re-education camps. The noted pro-nuclear nutcase Lyndon LaRouche received much of his campaign contributions from universities. The protestors would have to back down and would have no more effect than the animal-rights protestors. (Animal rights has been the next stage of “progressive” politics for over a century.)