I subscribe to ISHN to get objective information that might apply to my professional responsibilities. In my humble opinion, your so-called "Blog Bonus" OpEd is not what ISHN should be about. Your use of partisan hyperbole on OSHA and EPA does not help matters, it makes them worse. It makes you sound more like a politician running for office that the Chief Editor of a magazine that people read in order to facilitate the creation of an industrial workplace that is more healthful, more safe, and more efficient while having less adverse impact on the environment.

You seem to ignore some facts on the ground that all experienced Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental professionals know, there are many rules and regulations that get applied to businesses with a bureaucratic "one size fits all" attitude that do not improve the health, safety, security of the workforce or the environment in which the industry operates.

Want an example of how the proper regulatory attitude can have the right effects? Check out the EPA's XL Project Progress Report for Intel Corporation. Can you imagine the number of U.S. high paying jobs would have been lost and located in some other country if the old bureaucratic rules for permitting were to apply to the construction of Intel's multi-billion dollar semiconductor fabrication facilities?

All EHS&S professionals I know, whether Republican or Democratic Party members, tend to support meaningful rules and regulations that help to keep the work environment safe and secure. Most of us also realize that more than rules and regulations, it is the work culture and attitude of the company and its business sector that brings about real achievement of safe and secure workplaces.

So, please, let us keep the kind of partisan rhetoric you seem to abhor in the U. S. Congress out of the pages of ISHN.

Posted by Gary Green, Energy Policy and Environmental, Health, Safety & Security Consultant to the Energy Sector