I am unapologetic for expending so many pixels on the admittedly tedious topic of taxation, but in doing so I am afraid that I may have given short shrift to the other hobgoblin of conservative politics: regulation. It might be fair to say that right-wing apparatchiks from the EFF and BIAW are even more anti-regulatory than they are anti-tax.
And so I would like to call your attention to a news item that illustrates both the need for regulation, and the fine work of individual regulators. Evergreen International, one of the world’s largest shipping lines, has pleaded guilty to more than two dozen criminal counts of illegally dumping oil, altering records and obstructing Coast Guard investigations, and has been fined $25 million. The plot was uncovered by the keen eye of a regulator from the Washington Department of Ecology.
Amid the crazy-quilt tangle of pipes and machinery in the cargo ship’s engine room, the inspector’s attention was drawn to two bolts — two bolts among hundreds.
The paint was missing.
That sharp-eyed scrutiny by a Washington Department of Ecology inspector triggered a chain of events that culminated yesterday in one of the largest fines ever imposed on a company that deliberately polluted the ocean.
The investigation followed a 500 gallon oil spill in the Columbia River; a nationwide inquiry revealed falsified logbooks, and a three year, company-wide practice of illegally discharging waste oil into local and international waters. And it would still be going on today, if not for the work of WA Dept. of Ecology inspector Dodge Kenyon.
That’s right, this was the work of a state government employee, regulating private industry. You know… the kind of employee right-wingers usually denounce as a bloated leach, and the kind of regulations commonly railed against as an unreasonable economic hardship. (This was also a fine example of your tax dollars at work.)
There is a world view perpetrated by some on the right, where captains of industry should always be trusted and honored, while our elected officials should not… where regulatory agencies spring fully formed from the cunning minds of labor unions, eager to create cushy, make-work jobs for their members, while simultaneously harassing businesses owners and screwing the taxpayers, if only for sport.
But this libertarian fantasy is just that. In the real world, the competitive pressures of the market place often tempt businesses to choose profit or convenience over ethics, with such transgressions quickly becoming industry practice as competitors struggle to adapt or die. An unregulated market is thus a surefire path towards the tragedy of the commons.
And so when right-wingers decry overbearing regulations and wasteful public employees, as if all regulatory agencies are overbearing and wasteful, it is important to remember that there is no such thing as a free market, and that the costs of maintaining our regulations are often far less than the costs of the chaos that would occur without them. It is fashionable to balk at the expense of the kind of modern government our modern economy demands, but this neo-con chic purposely ignores the myriad of government regulations and workers who invisibly labor to keep our waters clean, our food safe, and our homes, offices and bridges from falling down around us… not to mention the many other public services on which our economy and civil society depend.
$12 billion a year is a lot of money, and surely the state could raise it fairer and spend it wiser. But the anti-tax/anti-regulatory forces are not proponents of incremental change; their goal is to starve the beast, as Grover Nordquist says, to the point were government is small enough to “drown it in a bathtub.”
One of the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats like me genuinely believe in government. And when I see public employees like Dodge Kenyon preventing a multinational corporation from clogging the Columbia River with oily sludge, my faith in government is rewarded.
Of course Evergreen will publicly complain that this type of enforcement is anathema to good market practices for their profits, and raise all of their prices. They should be able to make up the $25 mil in a few weeks. More power to the public servants who work in conditions that are at best unsanitary, and at worst vile and despicable.
Dodge W. Kenyon makes $63,192 a year, which is awfully good money for a state employee, no doubt because marine inspectors are highly skilled and in demand. Currently, the taxpayers are $24,936,818 ahead on this particular state employee. I have no idea whether Mr. Kenyon is a Republican or a Democrat, but I do know this: No laws are self-executing. They have to be enforced, and it takes someone on a government payroll to enforce them.
You need look no farther than the street in front of your house for proof of this. Speed limits, lights, and traffic signs don’t mean a damn thing if there’s no cops around. Hardly anyone would pay child support if there wasn’t a state agency getting after the nonpayers. Without forest rangers and game wardens, a good many people who go on public land and help themselves to the state’s timber, take home all the fish they could catch, and slaughter wildlife as fast as they could reload.
Not only that, but without rules and government employees to enforce them, your home wouldn’t be yours. Some guy bigger than you would just kick down the front door, move in with his family, empty the refrigerator, and watch your TV. He would pick up your keys and drive off in your car, taking your wallet with him in case it needs a gas fillup. He would walk into your business and help himself to your goods, filling up the cart with whatever he felt like taking.
The civilization that makes commerce, private property, and personal wealth possible doesn’t happen of its own accord. It can exist only if it’s protected every day by the vigilance of government employees toiling in unappreciated anonymity.
There’s an old saying that “you should be careful of what you wish for.” Perhaps, just as an interesting experiment, the righties should get their wish of no government. It will be fun watching them swinging in trees, eating bananas, and muttering “ookle ookle.”
That’s where we were before government was invented, and that’s where we’ll be again if we get rid of government.
one more business down for the kill. you commies must be overjoyed.
hey Don, maybe your ancestors were swinging in trees eating bananas but mine weren’t.
but this caught my attention in your statement DON,
” He would walk into your business and help himself to your goods, filling up the cart with whatever he felt like taking.”
isn’t that what democrats aspire to do?
chardonnay @ 3 You can’t mean to tell us that you are for polution in the Colombia river and our seas? But then again, by your previous posts you are probably 100% for companies like Enron, WorldCom and Haliburton doing whatever in the hell they want at our expense. Damn I am sure glad their are not many like you around.
I suppose Boeing moved their corp HQ to Chicago because there just is not quite enough regulation in this state to suit them. And they were overjoyed with Gregoire’s leadership at Ecology when they were prevented from developing their Longacres property as much as they had planned and needed to.
Get on the radio Goldy, your writing is becoming a bit stale. Your recent posts on taxes and now this do nothing but preach to the choir with the same old BS: is that your goal here or are you trying to accomplish something?
Get a life you guys nobody serious is proposing that we let the bad man kick Don’s door in. Or that we let the shipping company break the law.
I am for big corps like Haliburton much like Terri McAuliffe was for Global Crossing. HUH? Good for dems but not for R’s? Hillary did it when tyson polluted the river, paid Hill to shhhh!
Miss DOE Gregoire would do the same in a heartbeat, Hill is one of her mentors afterall.
white whine @ 3
A shipping company that dumps waste oil into public waters is a business we can do without, and the sooner the better. I hope this fine puts them out of business. Don’t worry, someone else will fill the void, and the goods will still be delivered. Sans oil in the Columbia River.
I don’t doubt for a second that your evolution missed the primates. You appear to have run aground at the insect stage.
zip @ 5
“I suppose Boeing moved their corp HQ to Chicago because there just is not quite enough regulation in this state to suit them.”
It had more to do with Phil Condit not having to drive past pickets on his way to work.
“And they were overjoyed with Gregoire’s leadership at Ecology when they were prevented from developing their Longacres property as much as they had planned and needed to.”
They probably couldn’t have cared less, as they had (and still have) surplus property coming out of their ears in Kent.
Dino should appoint him Director of Ecology after the trial.
Kudos to Dodge W. Kenyon for a job well done. It sounds like Evergreen could have recycled the oil, thus generating extra revenue, which would have been a far smarter business decision. What an unethical putrid mess those folks have made.
True conservatives are conservationists, support protecting the environment, and believe in E-T-H-I-C-S (Torrid Joe, you listening?) but are not wack nut environmentalists as often inhabit this part of the blogsphere. That’s why conservatives rejoice in companies like Weyerhaueser that chop down trees and make a profit doing so, but in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner.
Zapporo @10,
You are absolutely right, a true conservative would be a conservationist. And I am not referring to true conservatives when I talk about the radical right wanting to eliminate all regulation.
Chardonnay…
I can’t believe that you would look at stopping illegal dumping of waste oil in the Columbia a bad thing. Whatever.
Goldy,
#1: I never said that, re-read. I oppose you rejoycing in destroying a company. The tone in your post tells all.
A job well done by a well paid state worker is to be commended but it should also be expected of all govn’t workers. I see no hero just a good example.
#2: I love this beautiful state more than anyone, and have traveled every inch of it. However, I am not a fanatic about enviro issues. I am anti CAO.
Now, could we get Dodge to train the King County election department?
Char – Maybe you missed it… but if there is any “rejoycing” (sic) it is over a bunch of crooks that committed fraud on an institutional level and did it by damaging us all. What is not to rejoice about? Good companies should stay and prosper. Companies that commit illegal acts should be punished.
And here I thought conservatives were all the law and order types? Maybe corporations are just above the law in your mind… the hypocrisy never ceases with you guys.
Goldy is right. Tax and fine the corporations until they just leave the state. That will show them!! [Atlas has Shrugged]
comment@2
Don – No one is recommending eliminating the government. It clearly has it place, public safety and health being primary. Cops, Fire, Roads all good, all needed, all appreciated. My brother-in-law is a government employee, my grandfather was a cop for over 20 years. I have countless police officer friends, I have coached baseball with two of them for the past couple years. What is not needed is big government, over stepping its role and getting too far into the lives of the people. Wasteful spending is the problem, Pork Barrel spending, pet projects of politicians, expansion of government. I am all for cutting back on the paper pushers and hiring more police and fire fighters and teachers.
And I am certainly a supporter of regulation but it to can be excessive. We are over regulated in my opinion. The case in this thread is an example of proper regulation and proper penalty, I would be fine with it being even greater. I never would support the blatant abuse of the environment. That being said I believe that land use rules are an example of over regulation. Do some rules make sense of course but it has clearly gotten out of hand.
Summary: Government Good, BIG Government BAD.
Goldy, your wrong.
1) The oil leak never caused as much damage as reported by the liberal media.
2) If there were actually an oil leak, it caused neglible damage as oil occurs naturally in the oceans in much great quantities anyway.
3) If the oil leak did occur, then the market is certainly capable of correcting for this. Those consumers that object to the behavior of Evergreen can stop buying gas from them to the extent that they object to the behavior. Government regulations interferes with this natural market force.
4) The fact that Evergreen has not been penalized by the natural market forces shows that people simple do not react to the oil spill to the extent you believe they should. This isn’t their fault. In any event, the consumers should continue to be able to pick the winners and losers in the marketplace without government interference.
5) If people do value having clean water more in the future, Evergreen will then have the market incentive to have safer shipping practices.
Nicely done, Erik. But I’ve always been confused on the distinction… are you playing a libertarian or an objectivist?
Erik @ 16:
First, Evergreen is a shipping company, not an oil company.
Second, I’m a little curious as to how this market correction of Evergreen is supposed to happen. You see, very few people contract directly with shipping lines. I’ve sent tons of stuff back and forth to Asia and although odds are some of it has wound up on Evergreen’s ships, I don’t personally know that. I give it to a freight forwarder, they book container space, it goes on some boat or another, and about two weeks later, a truck driver knocks on a door in Taipei with a bunch of boxes.
Likewise, you buy tons of stuff that’s made in China. Some of that goes on Evergreen’s ships. If you’d like to vote with your wallet and not buy stuff they ship, I support that. (I am a big believer in voting with your wallet by the way. Seriously.). Go to your favorite electronics dealer, whether it is the audiophiles at Hawthorne Stereo or the helpful people in red vests at Fry’s. Ask them which of the fine products in their store were shipped on Evergreen’s boats, so that you can refuse to buy those.
They won’t know. Literally not one person at the store would be able to answer that question. One or two people in logistics at the head office in California could tell you, but even then, it’s complicated.
You see, it is almost an unanswerable question. The Sony CD-ROM players that were delivered 4 April came over on APL. They’re fine. The ones that were delivered 21 Mar? Those came on Evergreen. Don’t buy them. So look through that big high stack of CD-ROMs sitting in the middle of the store and figure out which is which. Good luck, yah!
The idea of the market correcting everything through direct consumer pressure probably was pretty cool when we all lived in small towns, everybody knew everybody, and how stuff got from a to b was as plain as the nose on your face. Unfortunately, we live here and now, and there have been a few more moving parts added to the system since then.
great comment JSA
Erik…I am confused you write incredibly like chuckie pretzel
This story has got to be fake. Dodge Kenyon, Defender of All that is Right and Good? Protector of the Seas and Small Children? DODGE Kennnnnyonnnnnnnn!!!!
Just try reading this section of the article in an overly dramatic, Mr. Voiceover manner: “The Washington inspector who helped break the case, Dodge Kenyon, could tell the bolts had been removed often enough to wear off the paint. Trained as a ship’s engineer, he immediately suspected that waste oil was being diverted overboard.”
:)
Goldy: “One of the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats like me genuinely believe in government.”
C’mon… you’re oversimplifying. That would be like me saying that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats genuinely believe that all problems can be solved if you just throw enough money at them.
Or I could say that the difference is that Republicans believe that the government is the servant of the people while Democrats believe that the people should serve the government.
Government should be just large enough and cost just enough to meet the objectives given to it — directly or indirectly — by the Constitution and the vote of people. I would say that my personal pet peeves about government are “mission creep” and inefficiency — either due to apathy or political motivations.
Chris @ 15
“No one is recommending eliminating the government. It clearly has it place,”
Oh really? No one would ever figure this out from right wing rhetoric. Usually the only government workers they ever acknowledge are cops and soldiers, and even then, they’re not willing to pay taxes for it.
Nicely done, Erik. But I’ve always been confused on the distinction… are you playing a libertarian or an objectivist?
Both.