Can Real Estate Practices Prevent Oil Spills?
By Mike Tobin, CresaPartners Continuing on the thread of transparency in the real estate market from my last posting (Sustainability Promises Transparency and Opportunities, 3/17/10), the waters of sustainability can be rather murky…literally in the case of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico where we face one of the worst environmental disasters since the Exxon Valdez. It is amazing how within a short period of time (i.e. since the last blog posting), we are forcefully reminded of how perilous the line between our industrial economy and our natural ecology is. This disaster will inevitably bring forth the heated debate about the risk/reward balance with off-shore drilling. Then, the debate will most likely grow to encompass the risks and rewards of oil drilling in general (we’ll be inundated with “Drill, Baby, Drill!” references again and again). Next, it will expand into a debate about the need for energy independence and renewable energy sources. Finally, it will come full circle
