The behavior that leads to the issue is individual consumers driving cars. Outlawing this would nuke demand for fossil fuels which encourages risky well drilling. But since 99% of Americans drive they tend to get very unhappy about the prospect of banning the vroom vroom. This is a real and challenging political problem. We can't get around it by pretending that corporations drill for fun.

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georgeecollins 17 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

There is no oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast. There is plenty of oil there, they just care about different things. I agree it would be good to get rid gas cars, but you can't just outlaw them-- for practical and legal reasons. Maybe have the price of every environmental harm added to each gallon and let people adjust their habits accordingly?

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noworld 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I’d take it a step further. Most people don’t drive by choice, but because of the zoning and regulations that create sprawling suburbs meaning almost no one can live without a car. Can’t get to work, can’t get groceries, can’t get the kids to day care without a car.

Edit: want to add the sprawl also makes efficient mass public transportation nearly impossible.

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trollbridge 25 minutes ago | parent [-]

In places with absolutely no zoning whatsoever, people still drive cars, motorcycles, mopeds, etc.

People like fast, on-demand transportation they're in control of. The answer is electric vehicles.

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Sharlin 6 minutes ago | parent [-]

Cars make themselves not-fast by their sheer inefficiency unless huge amounts of taxpayer money is continually poured to the infrastructure. What’s incredible is that cars have been getting even larger, an example of astonishingly perverse incentive structures.

	▲	trollbridge 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		From my experience in the third world with quite poor infrastructure (e.g. unpaved roads, lack of traffic control devices anyone respects etc.), cars and motorcycles are still everywhere. Some places like Ethiopia have simply switched to EVs by encouraging their import and discouraging import of non-EVs. Now, most vehicles there are EVs.