In light of the West Virginia "Liberty Spill" I have been thinking about how we regulate industry in the United States, and how the current approach is failing the American People, Environment, and, frankly, Business. Not all Business is irresponsible in terms of its maintenance of hazardous materials and the facilities that store them, but those who are are a costly threat to the United States, its People's health, and the perception of industry. We, as Citizens, forget that the only reason any Business exists in the United States is because our US Government accepts their Articles of Incorporation, or provides them with Business Licenses that allows the business to exist. Wrap your head around this for a minute ... doing Business in the United States, like driving, is a Privilege, not a Right. And for extending the Privilege of doing business, the Citizens should expect businesses to comply with regulations, not dodge them. My suggestion for industries that deal in hazardous materials is a Calamity Tax.
The way the Calamity Tax would work, is that it would be a response to Industry not submitting to stringent yearly inspections ... The Freedom Industries Tanks that spilled in W. VA hadn't been inspected by the EPA since 1999. The Calamity Tax is built on an assumption of guilt on the part of Industries that dodge inspections. The Calamity Tax would only take effect if the Industry does not provide its Inspection Certificate to the IRS on a yearly basis. The result of a Business not providing the required inspection certificate would be a 20% hit on the Net income for the year, with no offsetting tax breaks to get around the penalty ... if the Industry does not meet the expectation of inspections, they pay through the nose for it.
The collected Calamity Tax would go into a dedicated Industrial Disaster Fund, that would be tapped in the case of an industrial spill so that Tax Payers don't take the full economic hit if the spill occurs ... the scofflaws do.
The Calamity Tax would not preclude litigation against a business responsible for an industrial spill, whether maintaining an inspection certificate or not.
As I said before, doing business in the United States ... though considered a right ... is a privilege. So, just as driver pays a fine for missing registration or insurance on their car, a business should pay out of its profits for not meeting the inspection obligation, especially when such avoidance of critical safety requirments can result in Calamity for the community it resides in.
An additional benefit for instituting a Calamity Tax would be it would reverse polarity on the EPA. What I mean is that business will be screaming to expand the EPA in order to insure there are enough inspectors available to perform the inspections. I don't believe any business would want to deduct 20% from profits that should otherwise go to owners and investors.
Of course, along with implementation of a Calamity Tax there would need to be criminal penalties mandated to prevent corruption in the inspection certificate issuance process, in order to keep inspectors on the straight-and-narrow.
Listen, I recognize there are probably areas of improvement the Calamity Tax idea, for I am really only spit-balling, but I think, at minimum, the American People should expect Business to act responsibly, and not feel it has the right to foul the environment we all rely on in order to save a few bucks. I don't think we should have towns exploding in Texas or drinking water poisoned in West Virginia because a business abused its privilege to exist.
From my point of view, a Calamity Tax for businesses dealing in hazardous wastes that refuse to ensure, and prove the safety of its operations though inspections, is the only logical approach to those who abuse their privilege to do business in the United States.