On rumors of a new oil recovery Czar
He's what the president said:
“I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending.”
But the funny thing is, a lot of those people passed a law back in 1994...the National Oil And Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan Act...that MANDATED
1.a plan for dealing with various scenarios around oil and hazardous substances
2.testing that plan to assure it worked
3.effective response to a large oil spill was a national priority that could overwhelm regional resources
4.the EPA and the Coast Guard are in charge of the plan and its testing and implementation
We already have a law, and clearly defined Federal lines of responsibility (consistent with the Commerce Clause, BTW) that MANDATED you have a response "in case of a catastrophic spill".
posted by Nylecoj at 2:03 PM
2 Comments:
Nylecoj,
Great points. This country already has plenty of laws and regulations (too many if you ask me). The problem is not lack of laws or regulations... it's enforcement. We have immigration laws, but they are not being enforced. We have oil spill regulations, but they are not being enforced. We have laws against fraud and abuse in Medicare, but they are not being enforced.
The problem is that government KNOWS those laws aren't being enforced. But rather than face the embarrassment of admitting their own culpability, they act like every problem is a new one which requires a new law. It's nothing but deflection. Smoke and mirrors. "Ignore that man behind the curtain."
There are too many, and apparently too many to keep track of. I am not sure how many of the laws are knowingly not being enforced due to embarrassment or anything else. I do believe that government doesn't bother to look at what went before. Maybe it is ego but it seems to me that these folsk go in there thinking they need to do something and don't bother to check or believe that anyone could have tried it before. We are constantly repeating history.
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