Why is it that in most parts of the world, local people do not benefit from the removal of fossil fuels from their local environment? Discuss the economics, politics, and environmental reasons that locals may not benefit

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In most parts of the world where the oil industry has extracted oil, local residents have not seen great benefits. To the contrary, in many instances, they have experienced disruption and harm to their way of life. This has occurred repeatedly when multinational corporations have extracted oil in developing countries, paying concessions to those countries' governments for access to the oil. All too often, the money has not trickled down to residents of the region from which the oil is extracted. Furthermore, oil-rich developing countries such as Ecuador and Nigeria often have few environmental regulations, and existing regulations may be infrequently enforced if a government does not want to risk losing the large sums of money associated with oil development. Some critics accuse multinational oil corporations of furthering environmental degradation and political repression in developing countries by funding dictatorships and by threatening to withdraw investment and development money if environmental protection regulations are enforced.