Here's the lede on an article in today's NYT: "Experts say that weak oversight of the 2.7 million miles of gas pipeline in the United States has contributed to hundreds of episodes that have killed 60 people in the last five years."
Now Ned has two "takes" on this:
First, those, mainly Republicans, who decry "red tape" are always crying about "too many regulations" and of course that is a feature of their newest Contract On America. And yet here is another area where a lack of appropriate regulations, and appropriate enforcement, has led to 60 deaths in 5 years.
But is 60 dead a price we can afford to pay for reducing red tape? Can we keep cutting federal and state jobs, and expect enforcement of laws to continue unabated? Ned doesn't think so, but it is the other side of the anti-red tape coin, so to speak.
And, shouldn't we be increasing regulation of the junk food industry, and the cigarette industry, which are killing hundreds of thousands of people a year?
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