Reply #49: Well, here's another option.

[Dr Morbius]

And I grant it may not be as effective a solution as yours, but it is politically much more possible.

And that suggestion is, let's give the federal agencies some damn teeth. The company whose mine saw the awful explosion was repeatedly cited and fined by the feds; I bet the law doesn't allow the feds to shut a mine down. It should. Further, I am really, really tired of the insistence on applying fines to corporations that violate safety protocols. Fines can be paid and the accounting departments can work it out so the company doesn't suffer much, but apply jail terms to these bastards, and I suspect they'll change their ways.

So, I am not saying your idea is unworkable, and I am not saying I'm against it. I am suggesting that since we DO have privately owned industries, we need our government agencies to have the teeth to really bite 'em when necessary. To be able to shut down a mine for repeated ventilation failures. To be able to throw the bums in jail for taking economic shortcuts. To be able to do more than merely assess fines.