Someone is thinking.

Some time ago I wrote a letter to the editor concerning the fine imposed on an oil company for violating the law. My concern was that the amount of the fine would simply be passed on to the consumers.

Today an article appears concerning a fine imposed on PSE. I was delighted to see that the fine would come from the owners and not the customers of PSE. This makes more sense and I note that PSE has made adjustments to prevent this problem from reoccurring.

Apparently someone is smart enough to realize that simply imposing a fine doesn't always solve the problem. Why can't this approach be used with regard to the oil companies?

There have to be better ways to make companies atone for their law breaking other than simple fines.

A second approach might be to put the officials of the company that breaks the law into jail rather than simply imposing a fine. Sitting in jail for a time (it doesn't have to be long, 30 days, 60 days) might make these officials more concerned with being sure that the laws are upheld and the consumers protected.

Robert C. Knodt

Bellingham