CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: A new ‘Battle of Britain’?
Caving in to the anti-fracking fanatics is a craven surrender to mob rule | Mail Online
This may be the silly season, but we should be rubbing our eyes in disbelief at the insanity of what has been going on in Balcombe.
A handful of protesters have seemingly been allowed to threaten Britain’s entire energy future.
It was pitiful enough that, until yesterday, the police were apparently unable to stop a self-regarding gaggle of activists and mini-celebs from halting the wholly legal operations of a company planning to drill for oil in a Sussex field.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was arrested today at the anti-fracking protest in Balcombe, West Sussex
Furthermore, where it has been carried out responsibly, fracking has produced none of the environmental horrors the scaremongers have dreamed up (only one or two rogue operations have inflicted damage locally).
Altogether this has seemed like a miracle, not only enabling the U.S. to become energy self-sufficient for the first time in decades, but to reduce its carbon emissions to their lowest level in 20 years (because burning gas gives off only half the CO2 emitted by coal).
A colossal boon this may be for America, but there is no country on earth that needs such a miracle more than Britain, where our energy bills are still soaring.
That’s not least because of the disastrous skewing of our energy policy by the obsession of successive governments with one ‘green’ fantasy after another.
Not only are taxes and regulations closing down the coal-fired power stations that still supply more than a third of the electricity needed to keep our lights on, but the biggest make-believe of all is the target agreed with the EU.
A few things about this story. First I’m very grateful she is not my Congresscritter.
Second. The story is correct, we are just getting started with large scale fracking, and already we are starting to produce hugely expensive truck engine to burn Compressed Natural gas (CNG). We will quite easily become energy self-sufficient without even going on public land for a considerable period (as long as we can keep the government in check). If we go onto public land we can take the entire first world with us. North America if you haven’t noticed is a bit more stable than the Middle East. We can usually be counted on.
And for the third thing, this could be troubling. We see energy self-sufficiency in our future, easily. In fact we’ve got enough to make what we used to call western civilization (when it was civilized) energy self sufficient. You know us, we’re pretty easy to get along with. Tolerant and all that. But, and this is a big but, when that happens, and everybody in the Middle East is as broke as they were when the Pasha of Tripoli ruled, what are they going to do? Sit around quietly and starve? Doesn’t seem likely, maybe we ought to start thinking about that a little.
And then there is the fourth thing, and its something the Brits have screwed the pooch on (and we’re not far behind). von Mises said this
If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.
Because who are you (or me) to tell them how to use their property. Yes, we can enforce certain things to make sure they don’t harm us, or our property. But why would it be of any public concern if they wish to put a well on their property. We can have regulation that forces environmental controls, although civil and criminal law actually already covers us for damage they may do to us.
You see there is a general principle involved here. a man (or woman, of course) can parlay almost anything into a living if they be creative enough. It is stated well here.
Where self-interest is suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control that dries up the wellsprings of initiative and creativity.
—Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus
We need to return to trusting the citizen to pursue his own self interest, and to get out of his way
Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to advance the frontiers of his discipline, the missionary seeking to convert infidels to the true faith, the philanthropist seeking to bring comfort to the needy—all are pursuing their interests, as they see them, as they judge them by their own values.
—Milton Friedman with Rose Friedman, Free to Choose (1979)
Do note though in each of these examples we speak of the peaceable urging, not involving the use of force, if force is used, it become a form of assault, where perpetrated by a neighbor or by the state itself. A person has a right to make his own decisions as long as he is willing to pay the price (or reap the reward) that they incur.
And that is what is wrong, in reality, with that British story above (and many American ones as well). That property, and the drilling and extraction equipment, is all somebody’s property, which they have a God-given right to use as they wish, as long as they harm no one else. It is no part of the government’s place to have any input at all, into a private matter other than, perhaps, a minor interest in preventing damage to other property.
Let’s finish with a couple more quotes:
The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil. Man is reduced to a series of social relationships, and the concept of the person as the autonomous subject of moral decisions disappears
.—Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus
and finally
There exists another form of ownership which is becoming no less important than land: the possession of know-how, technology and skill. The wealth of the industrialized nations is based much more on this kind of ownership than on natural resources.
—Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus
Related articles
- UK Lawmaker Arrested at Anti-Fracking Protest (abcnews.go.com)
- Police cave in to mob rule over fracking in UK| Mail Online (dralfoldman.com)
