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The chilling effect of hypothetical fines
Washington Monthly, June, 2006 by Charles Peters
You may recall that after the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia, a number of news stories mentioned that the fines against coal companies for safety violations often went unpaid or were reduced to a pittance. It turns out that the problem is not confined to mine safety. It is true of federal fines generally.
"The government is owed more than $35 billion in fines and other payments from criminals and in civil cases, according to Justice Department figures," report Martha Mendoza and Christopher Sullivan of the Associated Press. Another example: "When nuclear labs around the country were found to be exposing workers to radiation and breaking other safety rules, assessments totaling $2.5 million were quickly ordered." The only problem was that the assessments were then waived.
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This failure to collect fines also happens at the state level. "When a gasoline spill and explosion killed three young people in Washington [state], officials announced a record penalty against a gas pipeline company: $3 million to send the message that such tragedies 'must never happen again.'" What happened then? The pipeline fine was reduced by 92 percent.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Washington Monthly Company
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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