Chemical Spill Muddies Picture in a State Wary of Regulations

The chemical tank leakage in Charleston, West Virginia have the ideologues drawing up positions for greater government oversight versus those fighting a rear guard action to placate the public and then forget the disaster. The usual Chamber of Commerce argument of less government interference defending industry are tiresome when the real problem in a rural poor state dependent on large companies extracting natural resources is crony capitalism circumventing an individual's property rights; such as to clean air, water and unspoiled woodland.

It is sad to see Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a former coal broker, “expounded on the theme. “Coal and chemicals inevitably bring risk — but that doesn’t mean they should be shut down,” Mr. Manchin said. “Cicero says, “To err is human.’ But you’re going to stop living because you’re afraid of making a mistake?” No, but why circumvent the process of making sloppy operators pay for their mistake in court? Let me get this right Joe. You want give industry the right to rape, pillage and spoil your state to the economic detriment of it's citizens so that your coal brokerage has more business?

As a Libertarian I believe in less government and more liberty. I believe in Adam Smith's observation that many players acting in their self interest most efficiently increases the public good. Concentrations of economic power that reduce the number of players capable of operating on an equal basis distorts this basic law of economics so that the public good is reduced. When society attempts to regulate these monopoly distortions with rules it is inevitable that wealthy operators will hire the best legal talent to ameliorate if not eliminate them. West Virginia appears to have a long tradition of letting industry run rough shod over regulations already in place. I doubt that additional ones will help. On the other hand what would help is the economic sting of making the despoilers of the state pay.

 The first order of business in West Virginia is to expose the cozy relations between industry and regulators with thorough well argued journalism of the same caliber of McClure’s magazine described in Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. Hopefully these exposes elects a reforming governor much like TR to clear the sinecures of influence out of State Government so that the judiciary can do it's job of making industry pay for the damage they create. With regard to additional regulation this TR like persona would order a commission to study accidents such as the chemical tank incident in Charleston and develop valuations necessary to protect the public with bonding requirements. Industrial facilities with the potential to put hundreds of thousands of people at risk will require sufficient insurance that the underwriters, protecting their reserves, will inspect, audit and eliminate sloppy operators beforehand. If there is an accident, then there is a pool of money to fix and compensate.