The Significance of the Kelo Decision in the Age of Peak Oil

In a recent supreme court ruling of June 23, 2005 the Supreme Court held against the petitioner, Kelo, the claim that the taking of her property by New London Towship violated the takings clause of the Fifth ammendment. She had argued that economic interests were not public goods. Justive Stevens gave the opionion, Souter, Ginsburg, Kennedy all concurred. It said, in effect that economic interests were definitely public goods. (More) ....This decision is a landmark to be sure. And I wanted to open the question of what it might mean in an age of economic catastrophes such as are associated with some of the extreme models of an age of peak-post peak oil. There are some good things that seem to emerge in the wake of this decision. First, what it seems to suggest is that land ownership and its use is here being understood as subject to democratic control through the mechanisms of the state. Private Tyrranies and Monarchies would be strictly forbidden. Instead the common good, that humble and undecorous creature of generalities, would here guide the redistribution of the public sphere.