12 Dead in West Virginia

[rollhead]

Twelve coal miners are dead in West Virginia. I am wondering how fast it will take the media to connect the dots back to the Republican administration.

In recent years, the number of coal miner deaths has increased -- after dropping throughout much of the 1990s.

The Bush administration’s policy of gutting health and safety regulations, already extremely limited, no doubt contributed to the rising death toll.

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Mine Safety Official Critical of Policies Faces Firing
JAMES DAO / NY Times 9nov03
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — The Bush administration has notified a mine safety official who has sharply criticized federal mining policies that it intends to fire him, according to documents and the official's lawyers.

The official, Jack Spadaro, the superintendent of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, W.Va., has been an outspoken critic of a federal investigation into a huge spill of coal sludge in eastern Kentucky three years ago. The accident, at the Martin County Coal Company, is considered one of the biggest environmental disasters in the Appalachian region.

Mr. Spadaro accused political appointees in the Mine Safety and Health Administration of cutting the investigation short, playing down the coal company's culpability and not holding federal regulators accountable for weak oversight. He was a member of the team investigating the spill before he resigned in protest in 2001.

Mr. Spadaro has also raised questions about no-bid contracts that he contends were awarded to friends and former business associates of David D. Lauriski, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, and other senior mine safety officials. His complaints led to an investigation by the Department of Labor's inspector general.

The dispute has become a flashpoint between the Bush administration and critics of its mining policies, who contend the administration has tried to weaken environmental and safety regulations to help big coal companies that contribute heavily to the Republican Party. Mr. Spadaro's firing, the critics contend, is retribution for his outspokenness.

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Mining safety rules get an overhaul
Union and industry go at it over administration moves

MSNBC.com
Updated: 3:22 p.m. ET April 12, 2004
NEW YORK - More than a dozen proposals aimed at improving health and safety standards in U.S. mines may never see the light of day under a Bush administration that is opposed to piling more regulation on the industry.

Many of the proposals, dropped from consideration by the U.S. Department of Labor over the last three years, would have added safeguards for coal, gold, silver and other miners, the federal agency’s reports show. Often cited as reasons for abandoning the plans were “resource constraints” and “changing safety and health regulatory priorities.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2001
Contact
Mark Helm, Press Office
(202) 783-7400 x102

Environmentalists Fight Mining Industry Lobbyist Confirmation for Deputy Secretary of Interior:
Friends of the Earth calls J. Steven Griles
"Coal and Oil Industry's Mike Tyson"

Washington, DC-Friends of the Earth vigorously opposes the confirmation of mining industry lobbyist J. Steven Griles as deputy secretary of the Interior because of his past affiliations and record of hostility toward environmental protection. The group charged that Griles could pose an even greater risk to the environment than Gale Norton because he is knowledgeable, aggressive and would stop at nothing to encourage more mining, offshore oil drilling and fossil fuel production.

"Steven Griles is the Mike Tyson of the coal and oil industry operatives," said Friends of the Earth president Brent Blackwelder. "Gale Norton's anti-environmental actions and attitudes pale in comparison. This confirmation must not move forward."

Griles served in the Reagan Administration Interior Department as Assistant Secretary of Interior for Land and Minerals Management (1985-89), Deputy Assistant Secretary (1983-85), and as Deputy Director of the Office of Surface Mining (1981-83). His tenure at Interior was marked by controversy and conflict with Congress, environmental groups and others.
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A Toxic Cover-Up?

April 4, 2004
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(CBS) Who is Jack Spadaro? He's a man who's devoted his life to the safety of miners and the safety of people who live near mines.

He's an engineer, who until recently was head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy (MSHA), a branch of the Department of Labor, which trains mining inspectors.

But he lost that job last year, after he blew the whistle on what he called a whitewash by the Bush administration of an investigation into a major environmental disaster. Correspondent Bob Simon reports.
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”I had never seen anything so corrupt and lawless in my entire career as what I saw regarding interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern United States,” says Spadaro.

“I've been in government since Richard Nixon. I've been through the Reagan administration, Carter and Clinton. I've never seen anything like this.”

What he's talking about is what he calls a government cover-up of an investigation into a disaster 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill.

It happened in October of 2000, when 300 million gallons of coal slurry - thick pudding-like waste from mining operations - flooded land, polluted rivers and destroyed property in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. The slurry contained hazardous chemicals, including arsenic and mercury.

“It polluted 100 miles of stream, killed everything in the streams, all the way to the Ohio River,” says Spadaro, who was second in command of the team investigating the accident.

[Gentle Giant]

I read that Bush tried to lower the air-quality standards in mines a few years ago but retreated due to the backlash. If anyone needs the proverbial canary in the political coalmine, it's the inept Bush, who can't seem to make a single right decision or think for a second about people's rights and health over the rights and health of businesses.

[rollhead]

A Mining Disaster

Wednesday, January 4, 2006; A16



THE MERE THOUGHT of being trapped at the bottom of a coal mine is horrible enough to send shivers down most people's backs. But after the explosion that trapped 13 men in a West Virginia coal mine early Monday, an equally chilling story of safety neglect may be emerging as well. According to Ellen Smith, editor of Mine Safety and Health News, the Sago coal mine, where the accident occurred, had an accident rate in 2004 that was three times higher than the national average. That record has since worsened: Last year, the mine's operators received 205 orders and citations for health and safety violations, 96 of which carried a "significant and substantial" risk of death or injury. In 2005 the mine was forced to halt operations 16 times after failing to comply with safety rules. Eight of those citations, which were among the most serious a mine can receive, occurred in the final quarter of the year.

Mining has never been a pristine or perfectly safe business. But there are mines in this country that operate safely and that receive no health and safety citations at all. At the very least, the safety problems at Sago should have caused officials at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which is responsible for mine inspections, to take notice. Did they? We may never know. At the moment, a spokesman for the MSHA says it is "hard to say" whether the mine's record was unusual. Ms. Smith says the MSHA, which used to publish the results of its accident investigations, no longer does so. The Bush administration's preference for concealing formerly public information has, it seems, penetrated the mine safety inspection world, too.

Another question worth asking in the wake of this event is whether the culture of the MSHA has changed in the past six years. Once purely an enforcement agency, set up to make sure that mines followed safety regulations, the MSHA has in the past several years formed a series of "partnerships" with mining industry groups. In principle, such partnerships might help make mines safer. In practice, they might have allowed the agency to become too friendly with the businesses it regulates. When Congress comes back to town, we'd like to hear some open discussion about the health of the nation's mine inspections.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by rollie

I am wondering how fast it will take the media to connect the dots back to the Republican administration.

Obviously longer than it took you. At least the finger pointing has begun before the bodies cool.

God bless America.




Mine Where Explosion Occurred Was Cited for Hazards (Update2)
Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Federal authorities issued 21 citations last year for a build-up of combustible materials at the West Virginia mine where 12 men died, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics.

The Sago mine, owned by billionaire investor Wilbur Ross's International Coal Group Inc., was cited for a total of 208 federal safety violations last year, up from 68 in 2004, according to the Labor Department. The largest individual fine last year was $440; the citations for combustible materials carried fines of $60.

When asked about the facility's safety record at a news conference yesterday, Ben Hatfield, International Coal's chief executive officer, said the Ashland, Kentucky-based company has improved safety conditions since acquiring the mine last year.

``We have no interest of getting into the finger-pointing of who is responsible for what, and what went wrong a year ago,'' Hatfield said. ``This is a mine that operated for some significant time before my company even had involvement with it; so much of the bad history that you're talking about was beyond our reach and ability to control.''

The 12 miners died following a blast company officials said they suspect may have been sparked by a lightning strike. The explosion shook the Sago mine, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh, at 6:30 a.m. local time Jan. 2.

Phil Smith, the communications director for the United Mine Workers of America, in Washington, said the fines assessed for safety violations are too small to force large corporations to make improvements.

``We could get pulled over for speeding and pay more than that,'' said Smith, who said the Sago mine was non-union. ``The problem with the current laws is enforcement.''

Lone Survivor

Rescuers found the body of one miner late yesterday. The bodies of the other 11 men were found early today. They appeared to have been killed by carbon-monoxide poisoning, Hatfield said today. Confirmation of the deaths came about three hours after families were told 12 of the 13 missing men were alive.

The lone survivor was identified as Randal McCloy Jr. McCloy, 27, was hospitalized in critical condition, the Associated Press reported, citing a doctor.

Rescue teams yesterday found dangerous levels of carbon monoxide after drilling into the area of the mine where they believed the men might have taken refuge.

The mine is run by Buckhannon, West Virginia-based Anker West Virginia Mining Co., which International Coal purchased in April.

Citations Issued

Mines can face a maximum fine of $60,000 or can be closed down if serious violations are found. It's difficult to determine how the Sago mine's safety record compares with others because of the different sizes and types of mines and numbers of employees, said Suzanne Bohnert, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

``Certainly it did have citations,'' Bohnert said. ``But all serious violations need to be corrected before they can operate.''

She declined to comment on whether government fines for safety violations are high enough to encourage compliance, saying, ``right now, we are concentrating on the rescue.''

Underground mining is the second-most-dangerous occupation, after a category that includes farming, forestry and commercial fishing, according to the Labor Department. There were 22 coal miners killed last year, each in a separate incident, the lowest number of miner deaths in at least 10 years.

Dangerous Occupation

Nationally, there were 3,382 injuries of coal miners in 2004, up from 3,342 in 2003 and less than the 3,925 in 2002. The numbers are down since 1980, when more than 16,000 injuries were reported and there were more coal mines in the U.S.

The Sago mine had 14 injuries last year, almost twice as many as in 2004, according to the Labor Department, which supervises the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

``When the numbers are going in the wrong direction, management has not been doing its job,'' J. Davitt McAteer, the former director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said in a telephone interview yesterday from Wheeling, West Virginia, where he is a professor at Wheeling Jesuit University.

Ross, International Coal's Chairman, on Jan. 2 called the blast a ``horrible, freak accident.''

International Coal was formed by Ross after his purchase of bankrupt Horizon Resources Co. in October 2004.

The Sago mine produced 366,043 tons of coal last year with 134 miners, less than 2 percent of the 19.5 million tons International Coal produced, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. producer, mined 246 million tons.