W.Va. senator blasts 'soft regulations' of state and region in wake of chemical spill that tainted water

Sen. Jay Rockefeller

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) was upset Tuesday when results of a hearing by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s water subcommittee found that "Patchwork federal regulations are inadequate to protect the public from chemical spills such as the one last month that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 West Virginia residents," Ben Nuckols reports for The Associated Press. Rockefeller responded by saying, "Regulation is soft in West Virginia. It's always been soft. I'm here, angry, upset, shocked, embarrassed that this would happen to 300,000 absolutely wonderful people."

Rockefeller chided people living outside of Appalachia for not understanding the region and said corporations never have to take responsibility for their actions, Erica Martinson reports for Politico. Rockefeller said, “Industry does everything they can and gets away with it almost all the time, whether it’s the coal industry, not the subject of this hearing, or water or whatever. They will cut corners, and they will get away with it."

"I came from outside of Appalachia, so sometimes I see Appalachia in ways that are different than others,” said Rockefeller, a scion of the Standard Oil fortune who came to West Virginia as an anti-poverty worker and was elected governor and senator. He said the regional myth is “the idea that somehow God has it in his plan to make sure that industry is going to make life safe for them.”

Rockefeller isn't running for re-election, but the two candidates who are vying for his seat, West Virginia’s Democratic secretary of state, Natalie Tennant, and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), were in attendance, Martinson notes. "Tennant, who was a scheduled witness at the hearing, asked the subcommittee to support a 10-year study to monitor the health of people exposed to chemicals from the spill. Capito, who made an unscheduled appearance before the panel, bemoaned a pattern of poor and incorrect information that both government agencies and private industry gave to people in West Virginia." (Read more)