After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation

[white cloud]

snip

Texas has always prided itself on its free-market posture. It is the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage. It boasts the largest city in the country, Houston, with no zoning laws. It does not have a state fire code, and it prohibits smaller counties from having such codes. Some Texas counties even cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.

But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade. Fires and explosions at Texas’ more than 1,300 chemical and industrial plants have cost as much in property damage as those in all the other states combined for the five years ending in May 2012. Compared with Illinois, which has the nation’s second-largest number of high-risk sites, more than 950, but tighter fire and safety rules, Texas had more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs.

As federal investigators sift through the rubble at the West Fertilizer Company plant seeking clues about the April 17 blast that killed at least 14 people and injured roughly 200 others, some here argue that Texas’ culture itself contributed to the calamity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/after-plant-explosion-texas-remains-wary-of-regulation.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130510&_r=0

[Buzz Clik]

1. The reaction to this is not "we need more regulations" because regulations weren't the problem.

The problem was dishonest practices by the owner/operator of the facility.

[ruffburr]

2. You can't-

Fix stupid, Pathetic wing-nuts of texas unite and revel in ignorance, My apologies and condolences to the few progressives stuck there.I'm afraid there's not much hope.

[liberal N proud]

3. How many towns must be blown from the face of the earth before they wake up?