Regulations definitely needed
WASHINGTON – And now we know what the Minerals Management Service does. Or rather, didn’t do. The obscure little federal agency that oversees offshore drilling knew that a supposedly fail-safe system designed to protect against the leak of thousands of barrels of oil was not fail-safe. But it never checked on whether oil rigs, such as the one that blew up in April, killing 11 people and threatening the Gulf Coast, were avoiding the circumstances that could lead to disaster.
Once again, we are in crisis because regulators didn’t do their job. Last year the financial meltdown led to housing foreclosures, lost millions and loss of faith in financial institutions, in part because regulators ignored dangerous wheeling and dealing on Wall Street.
West Virginia is reeling from the April coalmine disaster that killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine, caused in part because safety violations were tolerated by officials.
When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, he halted all pending regulations until they could undergo legal and policy reviews by his administration. When George W. Bush took office, he halted or modified regulations proposed in the last weeks of the Clinton administration.
Even in second terms, presidents ask for resignation letters from all appointees to federal regulatory bodies, getting rid of some thought too eager or too lax, often because of politics.
We’d like to think the safety of cars, food, drugs, toys, cribs, airplanes, barges, lawnmowers, cranes, trains, mines and thousands of other things we use every day would not be political. Sadly, that is not true. Usually we don’t find out how the politics played out until a disaster occurs.
Some administrations, such as the last Bush administration, downplay regulation because businesses do not like to be told what to do by bureaucrats who may not know what they are doing.
Regulations, supposed to be fair, are sometimes anti-competitive. They may be excessive. They can keep some businesses from thriving. They stifle profits. They are annoying. They are costly.
Regulations are also essential. Mine owners insist the safety of their miners is paramount. We have seen many times in our history that isn’t always true. Food manufacturers argue the worst thing they could do is sell unsafe food. We often have seen that pledge go by the wayside.
Oil producers insist they would never endanger their oil fields and their workers or pollute the oceans or the coastline. Why, then, did a House energy panel find out that the blow-out preventer that failed to stop the enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had a “dead battery, leaks in its hydraulic system, a ‘useless’ test version of a key component and a cutting tool not strong enough to shear through steel joints to stop the oil flow”?
The Obama administration is reacting to the Bush administration’s deregulation campaign with an avalanche of new regulations and by tightening enforcement on existing regulations and increasing fines for violations.
In addition to seeking to overhaul financial regulations, Obama has approved tougher standards for construction workers, baby walkers, eggs, oysters, storm water runoff, stronger brakes in tractor trailers, factory dust, the length of time planes may sit on the tarmac, the roof strength of passenger cars, polar bear protection, fuel economy, greenhouse gas monitoring, lead paint and toxic chemical discharges.
Sometimes industries prefer a federal approach over tougher state regulations. Sometimes they say tough federal regulations hurt them abroad. Sometimes industries say federal rules even the domestic playing field. Sometimes industries say they stop innovation and development.
What industries definitely do not like is the unpredictability of the federal government’s approach: Tough one year, lax the next.
It’s too soon to know if this administration will be too zealous or too mellow.
But it would really be helpful if the political games were removed from saving the lives of our citizens and protecting our fragile environment.
(Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. E-mail amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.)