I appreciate, and thank you for your response thackney.
My point was the article made it appear by the wording the Government owned the tank cars. I was parsing words. The government does not, and too often those within government get what they want by running roughshod over free enterprise ultimately running up costs we all pay for.
It would seem to me the “The older DOT-111 tank design” wording of the article creates the illusion the DOT designed the tank cars, but I seriously doubt they did. Only approved the design for service for interstate use.
Again it’s parsing words, but words mean things, and misconceptions abound due manipulated, or unfortunate word usage. The government doesn’t own the tank cars, nor did they design them. The article leads us to believe in, and accept ours as an all powerful centralized government.
They set the design requirements of the tank cars. Builders had to meet those requirements to put them into service. Not so much as approving someone else's design as setting limits in place prior to the design being complete.
an all powerful centralized government.
Regulatory power in this area effectively is all-powerful. Meet their requirements or don't move the oil in the tankers. And if they change the requirements, make the change when they say it has to be done. If not, sometimes it is a fine, other times it is shut down.