True, but those “once-in-a-generation” oil booms often end up being once-in-a-generation disappointments. If the pipeline leak risk, park damage, and social costs get socialized while profits are offshore, that revenue story gets a lot less shiny. Hard to call it development when the bill is left with locals and future taxpayers.

Yeah, the climate angle is ugly, and the displacement issue is not a side note either. But from Uganda’s perspective, this is also a once-in-a-generation revenue play — jobs, infrastructure, FX, maybe even a real export base. The hard part is that the economic upside is very real while the environmental downside is also very real.