<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div><span style="color: rgb(75, 75, 75); font-family: Georgia, Palatino, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25em;">Too Big to Punish?</span></div><div><div id="article" role="article" style="text-rendering: optimizelegibility; font-size: 17px; border-bottom-width: 0px;"><div class="page" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 25px; max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">As of this week, a single violation of prohibitions on watering your lawn in California <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_26153749/california-drought-conservation-efforts-failing-despite-pleas-save" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">can cost $500</a>. I recently picked up a tourist brochure for Sierra County California which cautioned me that a medical emergency in the mountainous, rural county was likely to require air evacuation, that my insurance probably wouldn’t cover it and that the bill would begin at $15,000. I’ve also read that the rescue price tag for a climber who needs evacuation by air from Yosemite’s cliff’s can easily run $85,000. But that’s fair—we ought to pay for the costs we create.</p><div>So how much did the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fine <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/22/after-west-virginia-spill-company-admits-second-chemical/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">Freedom Industries</a>, the company whose sloppy handling of the toxic chemical MCHM <a href="http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201401100100" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">caused 10,000 gallons to spill into the Elk River</a>, poisoning the water supply of hundreds of thousands of Charleston, West Virginia residents? <b style="max-width: 100%;">Pathetically, <a href="http://rt.com/usa/171612-wvirginia-water-spill-fine/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">a measly $11,000</a>, less than the cost of a single burst appendix helicopter ambulanced in Sierra County.</b> This when <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/10/west-virginia-coal-chemical-spill/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">300,000 people had to find alternative water supplies</a> for ten days. </div><div><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/19/too-big-to-punish/" style="font-family: Futura; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal;">http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/19/too-big-to-punish/</a></div></div></div></div></body></html>