Rockefeller on WV water: "We can no longer trade public health & welfare for industry profits"

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Speaking on the WV water crisis to a Senate subcommittee today:

Industry will resist any new regulations or stronger enforcement measures. It's an isolated incident in West Virginia, they will argue. Agencies in charge of oversight do not need more resources, some will claim. In fact, Republicans have purposely sought to starve certain agencies of funding so they cannot do their job adequately. We continue to pay a price for this cynical strategy.

Over thirty years, I have heard these complaints all too often from chemical companies, coal operators, railroads - really too many industries to name. We can no longer trade the public's health and welfare for industry profits. As we have seen in West Virginia, when you cannot drink the water, not much else matters. Not much business gets done. The long-term economic damage from this crisis is almost immeasurable and the breach of trust seems irreparable.

http://www.wvablue.com/diary/7823/rockefeller-we-can-no-longer-trade-the-publics-health-and-welfare-for-industry-profits

[Voice for Peace]

1. kick nt

[marble falls]

2. Not exactly what you'd might expect to hear from John D's grandson.

[Cha]

3. Damn Straight America..

This meme is 2 hours old. Since then, at least 350 folks have signed the WV petition, which we DO appreciate! However, in the previous ten days, the petition did gather less than 500 signatures. It took three days for the Bieber petition to cross 100k, which means that the White House will respond to it at some point in the near future.

Send your friends, your family, and your neighbors to this link:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-mismanagement-wv-water-disaster-state-and-county-officials-well-wv-american-water/m9S1TDRC

Thanks. ~Karen

Share it, steal it, whatever.
Priorities, people...
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-mismanagement-wv-water-disaster-state-and-county-officials-well-wv-american-water/m9S1TDRC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024429889

It has quite a few more now!

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "No longer"? By implication, it was all okey-dokey up until that point ?

Shouldn't the thinking on this *always* have been in opposition ?

[lastlib]

6. 'No longer'??!? WHEN was it ever??

WTF, Guv??!? (I mean, besides in the minds of Koch-bros. types??)

[IdaBriggs]

13. I thought the same thing when I read the headline!

And then I realized, for some folks, it actually has to be stated that way!

[Blanks]

5. More chemicals need to be added to the 'right to know' list...

It doesn't even take new laws. The laws are already in place - this should be able to be handled by an executive order.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Planning_and_Community_Right-to-Know_Act

The original law exempted the military, but Bill Clinton (by executive order) 'unexempted' them.

The EPA and OSHA should be able to add this chemical to the reporting list just because so many people went to the doctor - and modify the 'reporting quantity' based on further tests performed (as required) by the manufacturer as a result of this spill and the reported illness.

I'm not clear as to why something that really seems pretty simple wasn't jumped on right away.

[daleanime]

7. Kick....

[Sirveri]

8. So why is Charleston WV not consumed by riots of the populace?

Seriously, they poison the water, and the American people just sit back and take it. If they can poison the water, then they know that they can starve us or do whatever they want to us and we'll sit there and take it. They will grind us under that boot as hard as they fucking can now.

[Brigid]

11. These are the same people . . .

Whose recent ancestors were not so submissive. What happened?

[theHandpuppet]

12. The turning point came when the federal govt sided with Big Coal...

http://www.apwu.org/laborhistory/10-4_blairmountain/10-4_blairmountain.htm

... and sent in the troops against the miners' uprising. From that day forward they knew which side the their own government was on... and it would always be the side with $$$$$$$$

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. If there were a God, this asshole would have burst into flames, along with the rest of the clan,

decades ago. The Rockefellers are the epitome of above the law parasites that exist through stealing thousands of people's lives.

[Enthusiast]

10. I've got news for you, Rockefeller. Until we overturn Citizen United

or have publicly financed elections, we will continue to trade public health & welfare for industry profits. And we will continue to enact destructive trade agreements that ship our jobs overseas.

[Lifelong Protester]

14. Go Jay!

Need to keep pushing this, and he is the guy to do it.