Nosmo King
Gold Member
The natural gas industry is in a dither trying to get mineral rights secured and as many gas wells set as possible here in upper Appalachia before the public gets testy. I would love to see us extract the gas from our own deposits. I would love to see many parts of transportation convert to natural gas rather than gasoline.A couple of points, thumbs. And I'm not refudiating (thanks, Sarah!) your story, but I've got to believe there's more to it than $275,000 for one oily rag. And, not to get technical, but OSHA sets regulations for private industry. The EPA regulates government workplaces.kewl, 2 people that have some near first hand knowledge.
Nosmo, it's not about throwing out the book, no ones fool enough to do that []
However the book gets over bearing.
It takes 30+ years to open a nuke plant, so no one bothers b/c it takes to long to start earning money let alone turn a profit.
ever hear of OSHA? These goons patroled the Navy for anything that may be wrong, and when they didn't find anything, or not enough, they hounded the crews.
I was on the USS Orion. a very old sub repair ship, that was getting ready for decomissioning. But for some reason OSHA wanted to inspect it. One very new shipmate, spilled a bucket of grease. He followed all the rules as best that he could and those around him could. While he was cleaning, an inspecter came by and asked him if he was done with that rag. [he had filled it and set it next to him] He said yes.
bam
$275,000 fine for not properly disposing of the oily rag.
Why were we really fined? Power. The inspector had the power and power corrupts.
I know no one wants to throw out the book. But, ask yourself, how does the book get written in the first place? For instance, OSHA sets regulations for exposure limits to hazardous and toxic materials. But OSHA doesn't do the research on those materials. NIOSH (National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health) does. In many many instances, a Short Term Exposure Limit (STEL) (usually fifteen minutes or so) can be established by NIOSH at, for instance 15 parts per million (ppm). But by the time industry lobbyists get through the public comment portion of a hearing, that STEL can be two or three times higher than the NIOSH recommendation.
Profit trumps science. Then the science is castigated by partisans as "junk science" and the public debate gets muddled in a political squabble rather than sound scientific findings.
when I heard it, I thought is was scuttle butt [rumor]. A stroy getting better each time it's told. Then we had to have training on use and disposal of oily rags and how to respond to inspectors. this occured early-mid 90's, so I may have the alphabet Dept wrong.
Don't get me wrong, I understand profit over people occurs, and w/o regs it would happen more often. I've met guys that would rather smell the fumes or get burned a little than wear safety gear.
There has to be a middle ground.
And right now I'd say we are over regualted to the point it's hurting business, and thus jobs and the economy.
But, if extracting that gas means that the aquifer gets damaged or the quality of life for those living near the well head suffers or the infrastructure (our roads and bridges) gets damaged as a result of all that drilling activity, I do think it's prudent to take a beat and decide what's the bigger priority: cheap fuel or the damage acquiring it makes.
It's an easy decision for those not directly impacted by the damage. Why, give us cheap fuel? Drill baby, drill! Those folks don't live here.