Re: North Carolina GOP Pushes Unprecedented Bill to Jail Anyone Who Discloses Frackin
Honestly let's just cut to the chase. I am not going to google all that. This bill is exactly designed to stop whistleblowers. Period. Man just think what would have happened if the State Department or VA had some kind of protections
like this.
You can trust corporations, but sorry I don't when it comes to the environment.
This has nothing to do with trust or whistleblowers. It has to do with making sure that people from each NC county that are members of the LEPC's (local emergency planning committee's), which in many cases contains environmental activists (which is not a bad thing) do not disclose corporate confidential trade secrets which they have access to only by virtue of their position as a member of an LEPC, which as I said before is already against federal law (the ones I gave you to look up) to disclose.
I really don't think this is going anywhere. At this time, it's just a proposal, and not a bill. Even if it gets to be a bill, then it will be amended to mirror the federal law, that is if they haven't done that already, before it passes which if it does will not change a thing other than allowing the state to prosecute rather than just the feds. There have been a number of criminal cases brought against LEPC members and civil cases brought against their county's for disclosing trade secret information, most on a federal level. This would give the state of NC the ability to do the same and give standing in state court for these cases.
People have a right to know what may affect them if there's a chance they could be effected by a release into the environment. I agree with that, and even if I didn't, it's the law and has been for the last 28 years. But... you, the general public, do not have the right to know trade secrets of corporations that are not harming them, no matter how scarey you think that trade secret may be. The LEPC, the SERC (state emergency response commission) and the US EPA have the lists, and they know what is where and how much. They are also sworn under pain of law to not disclose those trade secrets outside their official duties. This law makes it a state felony offense, not just a federal felony offense which it already is and has been for the last 28 years...
So like I said in my first post - this is getting blown way out of proportion, since it already exists, has existed for 28 years, and is a federal offense anyway. The only reason it's getting any media attention is: 1) it's a couple NC Republicans, and 2) it's about fracking. Both are hot topics right now with the left, hence the hyperbolic media attention.
As an aside, I don't care if you look it up or not. I was just trying to give you the facts so that the next time you discuss this issue you can do so from a position of educated intelligence rather than ideological ignorance lead by media inaccuracies. No disrespect intended, I'm truly attempting to help you out here.