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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRockefeller on WV water: "We can no longer trade public health & welfare for industry profits"
Speaking on the WV water crisis to a Senate subcommittee today:
Industry will resist any new regulations or stronger enforcement measures. It's an isolated incident in West Virginia, they will argue. Agencies in charge of oversight do not need more resources, some will claim. In fact, Republicans have purposely sought to starve certain agencies of funding so they cannot do their job adequately. We continue to pay a price for this cynical strategy.
Over thirty years, I have heard these complaints all too often from chemical companies, coal operators, railroads - really too many industries to name. We can no longer trade the public's health and welfare for industry profits. As we have seen in West Virginia, when you cannot drink the water, not much else matters. Not much business gets done. The long-term economic damage from this crisis is almost immeasurable and the breach of trust seems irreparable.
http://www.wvablue.com/diary/7823/rockefeller-we-can-no-longer-trade-the-publics-health-and-welfare-for-industry-profits
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)marble falls
(57,350 posts)Cha
(297,797 posts)This meme is 2 hours old. Since then, at least 350 folks have signed the WV petition, which we DO appreciate! However, in the previous ten days, the petition did gather less than 500 signatures. It took three days for the Bieber petition to cross 100k, which means that the White House will respond to it at some point in the near future.
Send your friends, your family, and your neighbors to this link:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-mismanagement-wv-water-disaster-state-and-county-officials-well-wv-american-water/m9S1TDRC
Thanks. ~Karen
Share it, steal it, whatever.
Priorities, people...
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-mismanagement-wv-water-disaster-state-and-county-officials-well-wv-american-water/m9S1TDRC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024429889
It has quite a few more now!
eppur_se_muova
(36,304 posts)Shouldn't the thinking on this *always* have been in opposition ?
lastlib
(23,320 posts)WTF, Guv??!? (I mean, besides in the minds of Koch-bros. types??)
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)And then I realized, for some folks, it actually has to be stated that way!
Blanks
(4,835 posts)It doesn't even take new laws. The laws are already in place - this should be able to be handled by an executive order.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Planning_and_Community_Right-to-Know_Act
The original law exempted the military, but Bill Clinton (by executive order) 'unexempted' them.
The EPA and OSHA should be able to add this chemical to the reporting list just because so many people went to the doctor - and modify the 'reporting quantity' based on further tests performed (as required) by the manufacturer as a result of this spill and the reported illness.
I'm not clear as to why something that really seems pretty simple wasn't jumped on right away.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)Sirveri
(4,517 posts)Seriously, they poison the water, and the American people just sit back and take it. If they can poison the water, then they know that they can starve us or do whatever they want to us and we'll sit there and take it. They will grind us under that boot as hard as they fucking can now.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Whose recent ancestors were not so submissive. What happened?
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)... and sent in the troops against the miners' uprising. From that day forward they knew which side the their own government was on... and it would always be the side with $$$$$$$$
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)decades ago. The Rockefellers are the epitome of above the law parasites that exist through stealing thousands of people's lives.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)or have publicly financed elections, we will continue to trade public health & welfare for industry profits. And we will continue to enact destructive trade agreements that ship our jobs overseas.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Need to keep pushing this, and he is the guy to do it.