A new report by a federal panel investigating the fatal 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas criticizes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for lax oversight of the nation’s oil and chemical refineries.
The Chemical Safety Board, an independent agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, also provided more evidence that senior BP executives were focused on cutting expenses at the refinery prior to the accident despite indications of safety problems at the plant.
My General Theory Of Government And Everything suggests that nobody is particularly bad or evil here – business leaders just do what people always do when the guy looking over their shoulder takes a coffee break. They follow the next most imperative set of incentives, which usually means maximize revenue and cut costs. If we want them to care more about the kind of pain-in-the-ass time-consuming business practices that prevent fatal explosions then we should elect a government that has the will to do a government’s job.
Since we’re talking about basic human nature the same logic applies to not screwing up a war, wasting billions on wartime contracting fraud, treating wounded soldiers, responding to environmental disasters, preventing mine explosions, science policy, environmental policy, law enforcement and collecting taxes. While hardly the only problem, this pathological allergy to oversight makes one of the best arguments for keeping our modern Republicans well away from power.
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Speaking of chemical safety. Spooky how just about every rock in DC has Dick Cheney under it.
Pb
You must be new here–let me introduce you to the Bush administration and their loyal supporters (and monied interests).
It’s called “letting the free market decide”. See also: child labor, coal mining, the 12-hour work day, slavery, etc., etc.
Andrew
Pb, why do you hate freedom?
Pb
For the same reasons that I hate the children trying to support their families and the free-market coal-miner entrepeneurs providing them that opportunity, and the inalienable right of the slave to serve his master.
Nick Kasoff
Today, the free market in America pays the vast majority of us more than minimum wage, and even allows some of us enough time to fool around on the ‘net and write blog posts during business hours. I know we ultimately owe it all to Al Gore, who invented the internet, but I think the free market played at least a small role here too.
Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report
Brian
Interesting how “The Thug Report” uses dialect and every single person on the front page is of a certain ethnic group threatening to good Republican 28 percenters like Mr. Kasoff. I’m sure you DO support pure “free markets”-are there no work houses?
gex
So where does this attitude leave you regarding regulation of industry? One of my complaints about conservatism is both the desire to remove regulation from industry and to limit tort.