Dear Texass, This Is What You Get For Not Regulating Corporations

[Minimalist]

Probably everything.  This is far from the first time this has happened.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc...ed/360863/

A year ago today, a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, caught on fire. As volunteer firefighters rushed to the scene, the 30 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in wooden bins exploded. What have we learned from this disaster? Nothing.

Fifteen people died (most of them firefighters), at least 160 were injured, hundreds of homes and buildings (including a senior center and a school) were leveled or ruined and $100 million of damage was done. The explosion left a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

There is no one state agency that actually has oversight or regulatory power. Not only that, Texas has precious little knowledge about what is occurring inside its fertilizer and chemical plants.
Since the accident, several legislative proposals have been put forward for consideration when the part-time Legislature reconvenes next year. But Texas has one of the most conservative, anti-regulatory legislatures in the nation. Republican Rep. Joe Pickett, chairman of the Texas House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety, says any proposal that would give the state a lot more regulatory authority just isn't going to fly.

When does political expediency cross the line into government-sanctioned criminally negligent homicide?