Out-ranted

I thought I had a pretty good rant about the WV chemical leak here, but I know when I've been outdone.  This one from Public Radio by Anna Sale, who used to be a reporter for WV Public Broadcasting, isn't bad either.

Meanwhile, I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that when workers from the WV Department of Environmental Protection showed up at Freedom Industries several hours after the leak, they found a 400 square foot pool of chemical "thicker than water, but not as heavy as syrup" held back by a cinder block and what sounds like a sand bag.

I mean, Jeez, what more do you need?

In addition, state officials admitted they had no plan for dealing with a leak like that.

A special joint committee of the WV legislature has been established to investigate the leak and propose possible legislation. It'll be interesting to see how industry hacks will try to gut anything that is proposed.

As I said in an earlier blog post, if any meaningful action comes from this, it will only be because some rich folks were inconvenienced this time around.

A final note: while driving to Charleston today, I saw a car with an Ayn Rand "Who is John Galt?" bumper sticker. I felt like running the guy off the road, sticking his head in some good licorice-smelling Kanawha River water for 15 minutes or so, and saying "John Galt is a fictional character from a bad book, you dumb ****.  This water, on the other hand, is real." In a nonviolent way, of course.