Well, it looks like
West Virginia will be changing the standards for selenium in its rivers and
streams. The West Virginia House of Representatives approved the legislation
that would allow for weaker standards today. The bill has the votes in the
State Senate, and Governor Earl Tomblin has said that he will sign the
legislation.
Even
considering the state of politics in the Mountain State, it’s at least somewhat
surprising that the bill received no opposition in the House, passing with a
vote of 99 to 0. Isn’t there at least one representative in West Virginia who
is not totally beholden to Big Coal? Not one representative to consider the
health of his constituents or the life in the streams and rivers of his state?
Of
course the anti-environmental rhetoric that has been fueled by big business and
the GOP crops up in this debacle and makes one’s head spin. The West Virginia
House Judiciary Chairman, Tim Miley, said the bill should be passed “so that
the coal industry is not crippled.” It's hard for me to think of an industry that has been able to
eviscerate the United Mine Workers union and rip off the tops of hundreds of
West Virginia’s mountains with impunity as being crippled.
Miley
referred to “punishing fines” on the coal industry for violations of existing
selenium standards. Well, a fine is intended to be punishing. That the coal
companies have been allowed to pay such small fines for serious violations of
safety and pollution for too long is the real crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment