Sunday, January 19, 2014
Here comes the smoke and mirrors
As the state of West Virginia tries to recover a sense of normalcy following the massive poisoning of a major water supply, the lap dogs and turd polishers of the coal and chemical industries are deploying their forces against the public to prevent any loss to their corporate masters.
Here in West Virginia, residents were still reeling from the chemical spill that left more than 300,000 people without usable water for days, many of them still frightened and unsure whether official assurances that they could once again drink tap water or bathe their children were true.Sorry Joe, a mistake is when somebody bumps you at a cocktail party and spills your drink. When somebody poisons the water supply for 300,000 people for a week and shuts down the local economy because they could not be bothered to take basic maintenance and safety steps, that is a serious problem that requires a serious solution. Sadly, with people like Joe in the way, the possibility of any meaningful regulation is in the vicinity of slim to none.
But in Washington on Wednesday, among friends at an event sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, West Virginia’s junior senator and former governor, Joe Manchin III, was preaching a familiar gospel of an industry under siege by overzealous regulators.
“You feel like everyone’s turned against you,” he said. He assured his audience that he would continue to fight back against proposed new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal, quoting the state motto in Latin: “Montani semper liberi” — “Mountaineers are always free.”
In an interview the next day, he 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?”
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