New Name, Same Game: How the system works for Freedom Industries

Business as usual in Appalachia, all with the government's help.

http://earthjustice.org/blog/2014-may/new-name-same-game
Earthjustice
New Name, Same Game
By Jessica Knoblauch
Tuesday, May 20, 2014

It’s only been a few months since the chemical company Freedom Industries spilled an estimated 10,000 gallons of a coal chemical into the Elk River, contaminating the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians. Yet, it seems that a handful of Freedom’s executives are already getting a fresh start with a new chemical company that’s strikingly similar to the original.

According to The Charleston Gazette, the chemical company, Lexycon LLC, shares addresses and phone numbers with Freedom Industries, and it was founded by a former Freedom executive. But that’s not all. The reporter also found that Lexycon has ties to at least two other current or former Freedom executives. In addition, the descriptions for both of the companies are almost an exact match. Meanwhile, Freedom Industries seems to have forgotten about their other company’s spill, and who will pay for it, since Freedom Industries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-January.

So how is Freedom able to start another company without having even finished cleaning up its first mess? The answer is regulatory incompetence and lax regulations. Though the 1976 Superfund bill requires polluters to pay for the cleanup of their messes, over the last 30 years the EPA has failed to require that the nation’s most dangerous industries have adequate funds, through insurance or bonding, to clean up their spills.

“If you drive a car, you are required by law to have auto insurance so that if there is an accident you can pay for it,” says Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans, who has previously sued the EPA for failing to develop regulations that require mining companies and other high-risk polluting industries to provide financial proof that they are able to clean up after spills. “But if you’re a company that deals in millions of gallons of toxic chemicals, the government gives you a pass on insurance."....

MORE at link posted above.