What follows is lesson #32982.4 on why we cannot trust companies to regulate themselves:
From today's New York Times:
Over the past decade, more than 300 oil and gas workers (snip) were killed in highway crashes, the largest cause of fatalities in the industry. Many of these deaths were due in part to oil field exemptions from highway safety rules that allow truckers to work longer hours than drivers in most other industries, according to safety and health experts.
Many oil field truckers say that while these exemptions help them earn more money, they are routinely used to pressure workers into driving after shifts that are 20 hours or longer.
What it comes down to is that this industry has sought and received special treatment, i.e., exemptions from the rules that govern how much rest is required after long shifts before oil and gas industry workers can get on the road and drive.
It is worth noting that the National Transportation Safety Board has come out strongly against the exemption because of the risk it poses to the safety of those on the road. And the problem will only get worse:
This threat will grow substantially in coming years, safety advocates warn. According to federal officials, more than 200,000 new oil and gas wells will be drilled nationwide over the next decade. And the drilling technique used at more than 90 percent of these wells, known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, leads to far more trucks on the road — roughly 500 to 1,500 truck trips per well — than traditional drilling, partly because fracking requires millions of gallons of water per well.
I can't do justice to the story presented in this article, as it is both an analysis of the larger issue, and a gut-wrenching story of the family of Timothy Roth, who was killed in a traffic crash after the driver of the truck he was riding in fell asleep. The men had worked 17 hours straight and then drove four more hours, still on the job, before crashing ten minutes before they reached their destination. Please read it.
As with so many, many other examples, here we see the fundamental flaw in the Republican approach to regulation. Corporations, and their (mostly, but not only) Republican friends who do their bidding in Congress, fight every regulation because, they say, it will cost them money. Those regulations are unnecessary because, they say, businesses know what they are doing and wouldn't endanger their workers, whom they value highly (cough).
Of course we know the reality, whether it's this example, or that of the Upper Big Branch Coal Mine in West Virginia, run by Massey Energy. You remember that one, the one where 29 miners died in April 2010 thanks to a culture of corruption and lying to avoid regulations in that company.
Here's the reality of business: Companies compete with one another. If one bends the rules and makes money doing it, the others have to choose between doing the same thing or losing money. Honest companies lose. Nice guys finish last. It's a dog eat dog world. We must have regulation to protect the oil workers from being treated like dogs.
Simple as that. But Republicans don't get it, don't care, or both. Some companies are, frankly, too short-sighted to be able to think about these things the right way. If those companies are able to make money by being unsafe, they'll do it, and drag down the whole industry. And the workers suffer. The companies themselves will benefit from smart regulation that saves money in the long run. But many of them will never be able to figure that out for themselves. The rules exist for their benefit, as well as that of the workers.
Understanding the difference between the conservative and progressive mindset on regulation is crucial to understanding why progressive policies are better both for workers and for businesses, and thus for the country as a whole.