Lynchburg is a population of about 6500. Jack Daniel’s HQs there and has about 500 employees.
Does this town exist because of the distillery? Might be a very hard thing to deal with if the adversarial party is also the core of their economy.
Does this town exist because of the distillery? Might be a very hard thing to deal with if the adversarial party is also the core of their economy.
More or less. Most of the economy there is related to the distillery and tourists visiting the distillery.
I don't think anyone believes that the company will do this out of the kindness of their hearts but rather are hoping that this attention spurs new regulations. The company basically admits that's what it would take in the article:
"Melvin Keebler, general manager of the Jack Daniel Distillery, said in a statement that the company 'complies with all local, state, and federal regulations regarding the design, construction, and permitting of our barrelhouses.'"
It's a shame and defect of our legal system that complying with an accusation arguably constitutes agreement, because it creates the perverse incentive to delay or avoid potentially time-sensitive remediation, with the much broader implication that human caused climate change very much has a bill that responsible parties must foot.
In Ontario we have the apology act, which makes it possible to apologize for something without implying fault or guilt. I think that demonstrates how tricky and unfortunate it can be that there’s legal disincentives to do the right thing.