Matson: My Bad
Littering is against the law. Speeding is against the law. Smoking pot is against the law. Assault is against the law. Negligence can be against the law if it harms another person. However, recent events have indicated that negligence is not against the law if it harms an ecosystem or the environment. At least, that appears to be the case in Hawaii.
One of the lessons to be learned from recent events is that Matson can negligently dump a quarter of a million gallons of molasses into Honolulu Harbor with impunity. A simple 鈥淢y bad鈥 will suffice. It would appear that a person would risk a greater criminal penalty if they dumped even a single gallon of molasses into a storm drain in front of a Honolulu police officer.
Perhaps this is too harsh, but it is not too far off. At least, as of now, there has been no discussion in the media of any criminal charges which has by-and-large handled them with kid gloves. After all, how were they supposed to know that pipes corrode? Who knew?
Matson has agreed to pay for the costs of the clean-up. However, this, in all likelihood, will not even begin to cover the total costs of the disaster which include not only the direct costs of the clean-up but also social or external costs. These costs include, but are not limited to, dead marine life and damage to coral reefs.
This event has not only been damaging to our ecosystem but also to the reputation of the state. It has garnered headlines locally, nationally and even internationally. The debacle has been covered by National Geographic, Salon, The Guardian, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, Fox News, CBS News, Reuters and the LA Times among others. The bad PR is yet another cost of the disaster.
As Senator Schatz rightly pointed out, this is not merely a failure on Matson鈥檚 part; it is also very much a regulatory failure. It appears as if the state merely trusted Matson to conduct its own inspection of the pipelines. In a world in which information is highly asymmetric and profit maximizing firms will do whatever it takes to fatten their bottom line, this is a colossal error. While I am not a fan of overly burdensome and onerous regulations, some oversight clearly needed to have been in place. It wasn鈥檛. Thus far, no one in state government has uttered the words, 鈥淢y bad.鈥 In a state where accountability has been much ballyhooed, there does not appear to be much of that here.
With perhaps one exception, mum has been the word from the political establishment in the state. It would be encouraging to see an investigation by the Legislature into what went wrong so that we can learn how to prevent future catastrophes. But perhaps this is wishful thinking.
Oops, my bad.
About the author: Tim Halliday is an associate professor of economics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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