There is also the down side of up. At some point, maybe ten or twenty years from now, we're going to have a lot of bankrupt companies around the hydrocarbon ec

There is also the down side of up. At some point, maybe ten or twenty years from now, we're going to have a lot of bankrupt companies around the hydrocarbon economy. Everything from gas stations to oil rigs is going to have non-trivial costs to decommission. The sooner we understand this and plan for it with specialized funds[0] that can handle it the better. Right now we're in the established candle makers versus upstart electric bulb manufacturers part of the story. The difference for us is the sheer scale of this transition. We already have petrol stations in Canada that are run at a yearly loss because the estimated costs of disposing of the surrounding soil are high enough that it's cheaper in net value accounting terms to lose money year by year. [0] I imagine something like an escrow style fund where payments into the fund are paid back with interest after a predefined period of time if there is no cleanup from the entity or its subsidiaries, including subsidiaries that have been sold off to new owners. That way it aligns incentives and rewards good actors that take preventative steps to ensure less costly decommission.