Memo to Dow: keep the damn flares lit!

Wish Dow Chemical would take a page from Tom Bodett and Motel 6 by keepin' the light on for us.

In Dow's case, it'd be the pilot light.

Today, up in Austin, Dow was fined $63,000 by state environment regulators.

Among the state's grievances was Dow's failure to keep a flare lit on Dec. 17, 2007, which resulted in 11,562 lbs. of ethylene being released to an unlit flare for 3 hours and 29 minutes.

(If the flare's not lit, it's not gonna burn up the stuff Dow isn't supposed to release in the first place, OK? )

The boo-boo was "avoidable by better operations practices," the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says.

Yup.