May 15, 2003
EU makes polluters responsible for clean-up costs.
Guardian article. The EU set forth new rules requiring polluters to pay the full costs of any accidents, including the long term costs of restoring habitat and such. Naturally the corporations are up in arms, and claiming this will drive them out of business.
Corporate Britain struggled to contain its fury yesterday after MEPs voted in favour of tough legislation that will make firms wholly liable for any environmental damage they cause.
The government estimates that the new law - which could come into effect in the UK as early as 2005 - could cost British business an extra £1.8bn each year.
Brushing aside such concerns, the European parliament yesterday gave its blessing to the EU directive and by a narrow margin voted through a series of amendments that will make it even stricter.
"Corporate Britain struggled to contain its fury." What a strange way to phrase it. One of the largest and fastest growing industries in the UK is tourism. I really doubt that the executives in this industry are "furious" at attempts to protect their business. And of course, the bias here is obvious. This could just as easily be written, "British taxpayers breathed relief at knowing that as much as £1.8bn a year in clean-up costs they have been burdened with will now be borne by the businesses responsible."
You'd almost get the impression that the UK isn't also part of the EU, that this is being forced on them by an outside power, without any British input or say-so. But there are plenty of British who support this.
They also don't seem to understand the purpose of such laws. It's not to "punish" the companies, or even to fund any necessary clean-up. It's to make it clear that it will be cheaper in the long run to prevent such accidents from happening. As far as it costing anything at all, the opposite is more likely. As they themselves point out environmental clean-up costs routinely run in the billions. So preventing them SAVES money and HELPS the economy. Not the reverse.
