Not Sure that New Regulations are Needed?

Remember the old joke about the mule.

A farmer buys a mule. The seller tells him when he wants the mule to go forward to yell, “Go Mule.” The farmer takes the mule out in the field to plow, and the mule refuses to move. He yells “Go Mule” repeatedly with no effect. So, he goes and gets the seller, and tells him the command to move isn’t working. The seller picks up a great big board and hits the mule between the eyes, then he says, “Go Mule,” and the mule goes.

The seller turns to the farmer and says, “First, you have to get his attention.”

How hard do you have to hit the public between the eyes before you get their attention? How can you in the wake of this disaster think that regulations as they stand now are “about right?” And what kind of denial do you live in, if you think there were too many regulations in the first place?

James Pilant

Americans Split On New Regulations After West Virginia Chemical Spill

Fifty-one percent of Americans in the new poll said that the government should do more to regulate companies that use, manufacture and store chemicals, while 30 percent said current regulations on those companies are about right and 7 percent said the government should do less. And 50 percent said the government should do more to regulate the safety of the public water supply, compared to 34 percent who said current regulations are about right and 5 percent who wanted less regulation.

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The poll comes after 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a chemical used to clean coal, spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia earlier this month, leading to a prohibition on tap water in nine counties for about a week and forcing schools and businesses to temporarily close.

via Americans Split On New Regulations After West Virginia Chemical Spill.