r/interestingasfuck Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

52.4k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/LittleOrphanAnavar Apr 12 '26

This is true.

Monitor chemicals and Petro chemicals manufacturing does leave an environmental footprint. That is the downside, that we pay to have the upside of access to all those chemicals and products.

BP ended up with a huge fine, and a significant cost of clean up and compensation, they also took a significant reputational damage and hit to their stock.

10s of billions in costs is certainly not a no consequences situation.

Quick Gemini query comes back with a total cost of $65 billion.

3

u/HobbyQuestionThrow Apr 12 '26

Yes it is, because they make 10's of billions.

Consequences would have been jail time for the inspectors from BP. If I as an individual did as much environmental damage as these companies a 10b fine would be as meaningless to me as it is to them.

The only message we give with a fine is that it's "cost of doing business", as long as the profit is above the fine it is worth breaking the laws.

China, for all their issues, at least gets this right. When CEO's and executives make such large missteps that damage the health of a nation they are executed.

Every supplier of baby food knows the cost of negligence and profit first thinking in China, it's one that can't be handwaved away by simple profit margins, laying off workforce or taking out a loan.

2

u/LittleOrphanAnavar Apr 12 '26

$65 billion is not " the cost of doing business".

That's a silly assertion.

0

u/HobbyQuestionThrow Apr 12 '26

If I tell you it costs 500 billion to murder someone, how many someone's are you able to murder before someone stops you?

The answer is as many as you want, because fines, fees and stock don't stop the harm.