The state of the art was stuck at a crappy free market local max, where no one was willing to invest in a thing that might pay off later. Turns out, we all win; someone just had to bite the bullet and fork up the sweetener. But we really should have smelled an opportunity here. Like the article says, what else are we missing?
If the big companies don't have to pay for the mess they make, that's not a free market maximum. It's the typical incestuous government/corporate elite exploitation of the masses.