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Mine Safety And Health Administration

Posted in Uncategorized | August 27th, 2011

mine safety and health administration
Which is sillier – mine safety regulations, or global warming?

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship seen in the link below sporting some questionable fashion sense, stated “I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.”

http://climateprogress.org/2010/04/12/don-blankenship-mine-safety-regulators-silly-global-warming/

Which do you think is siller – that the Mine Safety and Health Administration could care more about miner safety than an energy company CEO, or global warming?

The most appalling thing is that he was able to carry on operating as he did with as long a list of infractions as he had.

Companies are there to make money. That’s how capitalism works. Morally unscrupulous individuals will regard paying for safety violations as part of the cost of doing business, as long as it is cheaper than fixing the problems.

The answer is to increase penalties to the point where it is no longer worth their while.

Blankenship is appealing to the same audience with his rejection of safety inspections as interference, as he is with his reference to global warming as “silly”. Whether he is being crudely manipulative, or whether he is so divorced from reality that he believes what he is saying, I have no idea.