A salt monopoly could spike car accidents in the Midwest
Many places in the midwest have actually switched away from using salt to melt snow because it does a lot of damage to concrete and vehicles.  Sand is a popular alternative, but frequent ploughing is often enough to keep main roads clear.  Raised vehicles like trucks and SUVs are also much more common in the midwest to avoid getting stuck in the snow.> America tends to operate in just-in-time style inventory models instead of managing risk by storing surpluses of critical commoditiesI don't think this a particularly fair criticism.  Deicing salt works by absorbing moisture as it lands, before it can form a sheet of ice.  It's useless if it gets wet before you use it.  It's pretty dry in the midwest during the winter, but humidity spikes in the summer making deicing salt difficult to store in the off-season.  Climate-controlled storage is expensive and deicing salt is quite heavy and bulky.