Why Were West Virginia's Chemical Spill Regulations Loose? By Any Chance Money?

And guess why those regulations are loose? Could it be money? Bing, bing, bing, we have a winner. "[L]awmakers have yet to explain why the storage facility was allowed to sit on the river and so close to a water treatment plant that is the largest in the state...Critics say the problems are widespread in a state where the coal and chemical industries, which drive much of West Virginia's economy and are powerful forces in the state's politics, have long pushed back against tight federal health, safety and environmental controls." Coral Davenport and Ashley Southal in The New York Times.

Meanwhile, in North Dakota, senators want new rail-safety rules after a rash of accidents. "[C]oncerns over the safe transport of Bakken oil through the state and across the nation have escalated since a rail accident on Dec. 30 near Casselton, a bedroom community outside Fargo, when a train carrying crude crashed into another train carrying grain that had derailed. No one was hurt, but a fire burned for a day and it was the latest in a series of accidents, the most serious of which was a derailment and explosion in July of a runaway Canadian train that destroyed the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic and killed 47 people. A train carrying Bakken crude also derailed and exploded in Alabama in November." Clifford Krauss in The New York Times.