US Steel Joins BP In Polluting Lake Michigan (click at title to entry - thank you)
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.12.07 The questionably named Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which should be still smarting from its BP Whiting Refinery scandal (TreeHugger here and here) is handing out permits to pollute again, this time to US Steel's mill in Gary, Indiana. According to the Chicago Tribune, Indiana is moving to scrap, relax or omit limits on toxic chemicals and heavy metals dumped into a Lake Michigan tributary....
There is an article today in the NYTimes stipulating US Steel is looking for a Trillion Dollar Bailout.
...The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program — up to $1 trillion over two years — intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit....
NO !
Here is why.
Besides the obvious, in that the USA does not want to make the same environmental mistakes twice, the safety of our environmental policies have to be assessed to know exactly how much damage was done over the past eight years WHILE the Earth has still been rotating and changing due to Human Induced Global Warming. To DUMP huge amounts of money into industries with grossly damaging environmental records without sufficient restraint would only INCREASE their ability to do more damage AND add COSTS to an already deteriorating American economy with escalating National Debt.
NOT EVERY job in the American Work Force is a worthy one. And why 'create' more jobs adding to 'Superfund Costs' for the sake of an economy. Absolutely not.
Addtionally.
The Economic Stimulus of the next American Administration is to change as well as stabilize the American Infrastructure. That means that industries such as US Steel may not have the 'market share' they used to depending on the demands within the country. That demand will be known as time goes by and can be accommodated in the future. To simply 'DUMP' monies into an economy with the whim of every business interest in the country demanding huge bailouts is pure idiocy.
To 'drop' a cool $1 Trillion US in the pockets of US Steel for the sake of jobs may actually 'crash' the economy future if there is less demand for the products they produce. If the American government were to be so foolish, the industries would then have to turn to international markets that may or may not exist. THAT could lead to a return to outsourcing while seeking labor to supply foreign markets by AGAIN multi-national countries.
I am not an isolationist, but, the monies from the US Treasury is supposed to benefit the US economy and NOT a global infrastruture. The American people and their currency will not be financing the entire global market place. Sorry. The US currency and the way its value is levied according to the National Debt is an issue as well. A very cheap US Dollar as a direct effect on National Security as well.
While the steel industry in the USA has produced a superior product than any global industry can, there is still much to be desired in the knowledge to the impact a NEW American Economic Strategy will provide on the industries profits.
Also to note, it this industry UNDER predominately Republican administrations, that has lost market share. Why? Because the industries they supply have lost market share. Why? Because Republicans base their economic strategies in oil and gas fueled internal combustion engines. The more the 'market share' of US Auto Markers fell due to 'environmental preferences' of conscientious consumers seeking to save the planet for their children (no small promise to future generations) the less US Steel was required within the economy.
There has also been a trend with Republican administrations to 'cut infrastructure' and 'downsize corporations' for increased profits. That said, the hospital systems have downsized their facilities. Consolidation and mergers reduce the need for corporate headquarters and building of the same.
If the American people want to stimulate the steel industry, they need to require all government building and structures such as the 'rebuilding of Ground Zero in New York' be done exclusively with US Steel. It would be a very interesting exercise to fund the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan with 'Stimulus' monies and demand US products and labor ONLY be used in its realization.
FINALLY, $ 1 Trillion US pays for a whole heck of a lot of unemployment and re-education of the American work force. A 'need' that was caused by the lack of government commitment OVER 5 DECADES AGO and the call of American Scientists, to 'sound science' and the acceptance of the need to re-tool the US Economy to be environmentally responsible and 'set a standard' for Global Environmental Responsibility.
