THE DANGER OF CHEAP OIL
James Surowiecki provides an effective tutorial on the correlation between oil-price ups and downs and the state of the stock market (“Tanking,” February 8th & 15th). But in concluding that, on balance, low oil prices help the economy, Surowiecki stops short of making a larger point: more affordable oil may seem like a boon for the economy now, but, when climate change is taken into consideration, it will ultimately have a negative effect. Low prices stimulate an increase in oil use and an intensification in greenhouse-gas emissions. Promoting fossil-fuel consumption after the climate-change conference in Paris could damage the fragile international momentum that it fostered. The United States’ proposed carbon-reduction policy focusses on power-plant coal combustion, but oil accounts for an even greater share of the…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 7, 2016