If you want more evidence of corporate influence on environmental policy, read the partisan yet substantive piece: Republicans oppose capital punishment for murderers by the health policy folks at Effect Measure. Here's the gist:
According to Confined Space, the Republican's "latest attempt at light sentencing is the WR Grace Bailout Asbestos Bill which would establish a federal compensation trust fund of $140 billion for victims who can show they were harmed by asbestos products. The WR Grace Company is a named defendant in 129,000 personal injury suits and their executives have been criminally indicted for a conspiracy to cover up crimes, obstruction of a federal agency and fraud. The company made asbestos products and chemicals and was the defendant in the "Civil Action" case that received the Hollywood treatment. Independent experts put Grace's actual financial liability for compensating the many victims of their criminal negligence at somewhere between $1.6 billion and $3.2 billion. Under the Republican bailout bill (there are also some Democrat collaborators), Grace will pay into the trust fund an estimated $418 million and end all uncertainty about future liability from this source. Pretty good return on their lobbying investment."
Today's post is in memory of toxics activist John O'Connor, who got his start after a little league teammate died. O'Connor found out that an asbestos manufacturer (Raybestos) built a little league baseball diamond on its hazardous waste dump. Believe it or not: other little league fields built on toxic waste in Gardner Mass. and on asbestos in Montana (CorpWatch/WaPo; also reported by PBS).
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