The ground delays are the airlines' faults. Period. The limitations of our congested airspace in busy areas (e.g. the NE) have been well known for many years. Yet, the airlines collectively schedule more take offs and landings in an hour than an airport (i.e. PHL or EWR) can handle on a GOOD day. You get some bad weather and it all goes to poop. Is it the government's fault when an interstate highway has a traffic jam because everybody wants to travel during rush hour at the same time? No. The drivers have the option of timing their travel differently to try to take advantage of the less busy times.
So, yes, I'm all for the new fines. If it involves canceling some flights then so be it. Maybe it will actually lead to some more rational scheduling that will eliminate the need to ever cancel a flight for anticipated ground delays.
On that topic, however, it's interesting to note that the number of canceled flights only went up from .9% to 1.2%, while the number of tarmac ground delays went from 35 in May 2009 to....wait for it....FIVE in May 2010. FIVE! Yes, it's been just one solid month to compare, but I'm optimistic that these numbers will continue to show significant reductions as we get through the Summer thunderstorm season in the NE. We can revisit this thread in October when the numbers are all in for those months.
And, as Doug said, the airlines all "did this to ourselves". Finally something I agree with from that guy.