{"id":574649,"date":"2010-05-21T11:06:07","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T15:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=25693"},"modified":"2010-05-21T11:06:07","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T15:06:07","slug":"rand-paul-calls-white-house-pressure-on-british-petroleum-%e2%80%9cun-american%e2%80%9d-defends-bp%e2%80%99s-recklessness-%e2%80%9csometimes-accidents-happen%e2%80%9d-asserts-i-don%e2%80%99t-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/574649","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul calls White House pressure on British Petroleum \u201cun-American,\u201d defends BP\u2019s recklessness: \u201csometimes accidents happen\u201d – Asserts “I don\u2019t think Washington should have anything to do with the mining” of coal: “My energy policy is let the marketplace decide through capitalism.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RandSuch are the joys of listening to a true libertarian unfiltered.<\/p>\n

The Tea Party crowd may get GOP voters to go ga ga over the likes of Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul — son of Ron (but not<\/strong><\/a> named after Ayn).\u00a0\u00a0 But that’s only because the “mainstream” GOP is so extreme that they barely noticed how anarchical a pure libertarian is.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, libertarians think the government should be out of the civil rights and regulation business entirely.\u00a0 Environmental harm should be dealt with through private lawsuits.\u00a0 Safety regulations should either be nonexistent or left to local officials.\u00a0 I hope we get more tough interviewers exposing his dangerous views.<\/p>\n

Today, ABC News\u2019 Good Morning America today, host George Stephanopoulos pushed Paul on \u201chow far\u201d he would \u201cpush\u201d his anti-government views.\u00a0 The answer is pretty damn far, as this video (via TP<\/a>) reveals:<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n
\n

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you don\u2019t want to get rid of the EPA?<\/p>\n

PAUL: No, the thing is is that drilling right now and the problem we\u2019re having now is in international waters and I think there needs to be regulation of that and always has been regulation. What I don\u2019t like from the president\u2019s administration is this sort of, you know, \u201cI\u2019ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.\u201d I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.<\/strong> I\u2019ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it\u2019s part of this sort of blame game society in the sense that it\u2019s always got to be someone\u2019s fault. Instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen.<\/strong> I mean, we had a mining accident that was very tragic and I\u2019ve met a lot of these miners and their families. They\u2019re very brave people to do a dangerous job. But then we come in and it\u2019s always someone\u2019s fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Uhh, yeah, accidents happen — to companies run with Recklessness, Arrogance, and Hubris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We now have a pretty clear understanding that BP was grossly negligent — and still is (see “Should you believe anything BP says?<\/a>” and “NWF: BP cover-up begins to unravel<\/a>“).\u00a0 BP has been working overtime to hid the true scale of the undersea gusher from the nation — but for Paul, apparently that really isn’t anybody’s business but the executives of British Petroleum.<\/p>\n

Paul’s hypocrisy is staggering.\u00a0 In the worldview of extreme libertarians like Paul — and yes, the phrase is a somewhat redundant — it is government that is to blame for all of our woes.\u00a0 That’s why Paul demands utterly unfettered capitalism, as in this 2010 interview with a local newspaper<\/a>, The Middlesboro Daily News<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

MDN: Regarding energy policy, on your website, you wrote: \u2018By subsidizing certain new energies like solar and wind, we distort the marketplace and make it impossible for companies to know what is really the most efficient solution.\u2019 Can you elaborate on your idea of sound energy policy?<\/p>\n

RP: I would say that my energy policy is let the marketplace decide through capitalism<\/strong>. So it shouldn\u2019t be me saying: \u2018I like wind mills and I hate coal, so therefore I\u2019m going to give all these benefits to wind mills and punish coal.\u2019 That\u2019s kind of what I think the Obama administration is doing. Mine would be more of: let\u2019s step back and let the marketplace decide. <\/strong>Coal\u2019s still pretty cheap and it\u2019s a cheap form of producing electricity. As far as the mining aspect of it, it should be decided in Perry county and Pike county and all these individual counties should make the rules for how the mining occurs. I don\u2019t think Washington should have anything to do with the mining. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, the federal government should have nothing to do with overseeing the mining industry.\u00a0 Now that position just happens to be pretty close to what Bush and Cheney believed and enacted.\u00a0 The result:<\/p>\n