US update

US update

30th March 2007

The US Mine Safety and Health Administration has imposed a record fine against Massey Energy, following the eminently avoidable deaths of two miners just over a year ago. The company's reputation is clearly crumbling: just over a week ago, it was ordered by a judge to halt its hugely damaging "mountaintop removal" in four areas.

[see: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1412.htm]

More than fifty mineworkers in Minnesota's Iron Range have been diagnosed as suffering from mesothelioma - which is normally associated with exposure to asbestos.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered twenty states to cut their particulates emissions (largely from coal-fired power plants). However, some environmentalists regard the proposal as a sham, since offenders will be able to purchase "carbon credits" and carry on as before.

Alabama says it will collect "mercury switches" used in vehicles and safely dispose of the toxic metal.

The recent scandal, provoked by revelations that the administration deliberately distorted scientific evidence of global warming, has been compounded by accusations that it has also violated three forest management laws.

Not only that - but a top official in the department of the interior is being indicted for "riding roughshod over numerous decisions by agency scientists concerning protection of endangered species. "

Little wonder, then, that a new Yale University survey shows a sample of US citizens now regarding environmental hazards as on a par with those from "terrorism".

Can it be much longer before the population of the United States realises that the Bush regime has been carrying out its own relentless war of terror on the nation's ecology?