The (very) high cost of oil

Being an oilfield roughneck has always been a dangerous job. Now High Country News editor Ray Ring has looked at how dangerous.While many oilfield workers are being killed on the job, Ring found:

“A disconcerting tendency of government regulators to fine drilling companies making tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars each year pittances — a couple of thousand dollars — for safety violations that kill.”

Ring won the prestigious George Polk Award last year for his investigative work. High Country News in an environmental biweekly covering the Rocky Mountains based in Paonia, Colo.