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Massey Coal continues to dispute federal and independent investigators. The coal company presented their case to family members of the fallen miners this week.
Federal and independent investigators appointed by then Governor Manchin have stated that a fire was ignited by poor maintenance of a driller and that this fire was not put out because of poor maintenance to water sprayers. This fire then ignited the huge explosion that killed the 29 West Virginia miners because of a dangerous build up of highly combustible coal dust.
Per Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette,
MSHA has said that it found widespread violations throughout the mine of requirements that mine operators spread crushed limestone, or "rock dust," to keep coal dust from igniting...MSHA has harshly criticized Massey's safety practices and federal prosecutors have said they are investigating potential criminal violations dating back more than four years at Upper Big Branch.
In my opinion Massey is dishonoring the fallen Upper Big Branch miners with their propaganda campaign. Massey has stonewalled the investigators and refused to cooperate. Massey is trying to avoid crippling civil lawsuits from UBB family members and criminal prosecution from the federal government. This blatant self serving strategy is offensive and pathetic.
Some folks will justify it but the reality is that Massey did this to themselves and, sadly, no one is surprised. How can we as West Virginians accept this? Massey should take steps to ensure these same problems are not prevalent in other Massey affiliated mines. They should be fully committed to the investigation and cooperate without objection. They should try to be decent for a change.
We hear all these politicians defending Big Coal but who is out there defending the coal miner? An anti union operation like Massey has undercut the workers ability to even defend themselves and politicians sit idly by as it happens. When the smoke clears from one of these disasters these families and communities are left with their grief and the painful question of why did this have to happen. When the photo ops are over who is there for these families? Why do we have to keep going through this time and again?
We need a rally for workers, a commonsense approach to protecting hardworking West Virginians, a campaign to show the faces of these victims- the faces of the hard working West Virginian. Finally, we need Massey and any other operator that puts workers in harms way to be held accountable. We need justice.
The good news is Don Blankenship may finally be on his way to Federal Court.
The bad news... it's for the wrong reason.
The Charleston Daily Mail's Ry Rivard reports that Massey Energy is suing the U.S. Mine Health and Safety Administration (MSHA) for allegedly violating due process rights because they feel there is not an adequate process to challenge MSHA decisions.
The suit does not mention the Upper Big Branch (UBB) disaster specifically, but references issues related to mine ventilation, which are at the forefront of the ongoing UBB investigation.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. It seems like Massey is using the courts as part of its public relations strategy and attempting to shift the debate from their culpability to some complexities about regulations.
It reminds me of the advice my departed grandfather used to offer, "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."
Sources familiar with the investigation say the FBI is looking into possible bribery of officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that inspects and regulates mining. The sources say FBI agents are also exploring potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine.
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue, readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post your manifesto.
This is an open source project, so feel free to add your own insights. Here's the news I found lurking around the Internets, possibly West Virginia news that is not basketball related ...
Good afternoon, West Virginia Blue readers. This is your afternoon open thread to discuss all things Hill-related. Use this thread to praise or bash Congresscritters, share a juicy tip, ask questions, offer critiques and suggestions, or post manifestos.
On a programing note, you still have time to kick in a vote for this series. We are up for a kOscar (it really was an honor just to be nominated). You can vote for this series here nominated in (#7) "News or Political." The other diary for more categories is posted here. Many thanks to Laughing Planet and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse for their work on this.
Turned on a light switch lately? Oh wait, you're already using electricity at a computer!
Do you have a smug feeling because "your" electricity comes from a renewable source? I used to have that feeling too. Until I realized that I shop at places that might use coal-fired electricity. And my kids go to public schools - where is their juice from?
Year-to-date, coal-fired plants contributed 45.4 percent of the Nation's electric power. (DOE)
and
9 people have died in direct coal-mining incidents since January 1. (MHSA)
Tonight I'd like us to learn a little bit about one of them.
Some of what I touched on was the change in the injury reporting form uncovered by The Charlotte Observer that miraculously made the poultry industry safer. The reporters also uncovered the practice of the management providing transportation back from the ER for injured workers and requiring them to stay at work in order to reduce missed days.
I brought up the delay at the beginning of the Bush administration of arsenic rules put in place during the last two years of the Clinton administration. The Bushies were all about ABC, "Anything but Clinton", when it came to governing. More study of arsenic levels lead them not to raise the level from 10mmb up to 20mmb, which was their goal, but to LOWER it down to 5ppb. The risk of bladder cancers outweighed the cost to local water systems.
In 2006 OMB tried to issue new standards for risk assessment. After criticism by the National Academy of Sciences, that plan was withdrawn. So a new approach was to go after the devaluing of human life by the OMB. The purpose, as far as I am concerned, was to make it a little easier to not regulate since a cost-benefit analysis of regulation is required.
And now, drum roll please, something completely the same:
Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.
Part of the "logic" is that people really don't stay at a job very long. Now while I don't have a hazardous job, I have been here for 27 years. The assessed risk is to be reduced since considering it over a 45 year career, and using a cumulative measure, is just too burdensome to "bidness".
Bush comes from a state that does not certify crane operators, actually one of 35. They rely solely on OSHA for worker safety in this area. The last crane collapse was at a refinery in Texas. I am of the belief that the engineering for crane construction is has been pushed to the limit. Like the Galloping Gurdie bridge collapse back in the last 1940's in the state of Washington, engineers tend to push theories to the limit until there is a catastrophic failure. But Mrs. McConnell just seems to not be able to get around to addressing this, despite it being on the list of things to do.
In spring 2007, the department listed 38 potential workplace-safety regulations as works in progress. Among its priorities were a proposal to reduce deaths and injuries from cranes and derricks, following a spate of fatal accidents; a new rule to reduce illnesses from silica, which can cause respiratory diseases; and a proposal to change regulation of beryllium, a light metal that can harm the lungs of dental and metal workers.
Dentist are such short term guys, aren't' they? My husbands childhood dentist was still practicing well after we started our own family. The Department of Labor has issued one regulation of chemicals in the workplace since January 2001, and that was due to a court order. But some like heavy metal music, some like light metal contamination.
Typically, before drafting a rule, agency officials consult with staff members, lawyers and outside experts, and sometimes industry and other interested parties. But Misir initially did not consult scientific and workplace-risk-assessment experts in OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, according to sources briefed on her work.
Anybody noticing a pattern here? Sen. Boxer's EPW Committee, under the excellent questioning of by Sen. Whitehouse, was drilling down to the decision making process of EPA Administrator Johnson. After all, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling on carbon dioxide as a gas to be regulated.
The Clean Air Act is law and sets up a certain decision process, based of the pesky concept of science. After considering the California waiver, the staff recommended at least a partial waiver, but all this was junked in favor of a political decision. Despite Johnson's denial, and the refusal of the OMB to open the email, there is evidence that the White House chose to ignore yet another law. The President's preferred policy was used to deny the waiver rather than the process of staff and science review set up in the law.
Nevertheless, the OMB agreed to work with Labor on the proposal. The July 7 posting on its Web site shocked many inside and outside the agency who had been following the events.
"This is flat-out secrecy," said Peg Seminario, director of health and safety policy at the AFL-CIO. "They are trying to essentially change the job safety and health laws and reduce required workplace protections through a midnight regulation."
(Right now Byrd's Appropriation Committee is holding a hearing on Defense Contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't even get me started.)
Mecrcury is not hazardous. MTR is just fill. Repetitive stress is not injury.
War is Peace. Slavery is Freedom. Ignorance is Strength.
So, JohnKenny Purdue, remind me again why we should not be in these guys face?
What does this have to do with W.Va. politics? Plenty.
First, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) talks a good game about improving coal mine safety. When legislation has come up for a vote, she has voted the right way. Unfortunately, she's done too little to bring strong mine safety legislation to the floor (despite the years she spent on the powerful House Rules Committee as a member of a Republican majority).
Capito's record on mine safety is further tainted by repeated campaign contributions from mine owners--include the Crandall Canyon mine. More telling, she has supported Bush administration policies--inadequate budgets and mine-company friendly personnel appointments--resulting in lax oversight at the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Second, the Bush administration, aided and abetted every step of the way by Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, has done everything it can to limit (if not outright overturn) Freedom of Information Act powers. When regulators, through incompetence or malfeasance, fail to do their job, FOIA discovery is one of very few tools available for public oversight.
How many more miners will die because this Republican administration turns a blind eye to mine owner greed?
Republican Capito arrived with Pres. Bush, she should leave with him, too.
I'm not sure what Pres. George Bush holds in greater contempt, the safety of coal miners, Congress, or the constitution.
By re-appointing Richard Stickler as acting head of Mine Safety and Health Administration, Pres. Bush is directly thumbing his nose at Sen. Byrd, West Virginia coal miners, and everyone else that cares about safe and responsible coal mining. For an administration that disregards constitutional precedents weekly, ignoring the will of Congress is but a bonus affront.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the mining families in China this morning. It's too bad that it takes such great tragedies for the problems of mining saftey to get noticed.
Still, it's great to see mining safety get a high-profile spotlight on the front-page of dailyKos today. I hadn't realized until this diary--Underground--that Devilstower is a former miner:
At this moment, rescuers are still trying desperately to reach the trapped miners. The 172 miners.
Chinese emergency teams are searching for 172 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine, state media has reported.
Officials told Xinhua news agency the workers have only a slim chance of survival in the mine, in Xintai city 450km (280 miles) south of Beijing.
Should these men be recovered, it will not only be a cause for celebration, it will be a big exception to the usual course of events in China's coal mines. More than four thousand miners lost their lives in China last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.
Despite regulations that say otherwise, mine safety in China is laughable. Mines are poorly mapped, if they're mapped at all, and just as poorly planned. Underground mines run out under thin, incompetent roof material, leading to collapse or flood. Mining is done using the old blast and shoot method, often with homemade dynamite. There's no roof bolting. Little or no ventilation. The results of inspections are decided through bribery.
The miracle in China? That they don't kill more people this way.
The huge losses in life for those mining in China in no way relieves the pain and frustration we feel for the families of the six men still trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, or for the three men who died on Thursday trying to save them. However, the scale of the relative disasters does dramatically show the difference between a mining industry watched over by a safety organization (even one deliberately weakened by an administration that hates safety regulations) and one controlled by nothing more than the greed of the market.
Click through to read the fascinating details of Devilstower's time underground.
Don't forget the take-away either:
MSHA, even weakened as it has been, proposed more than $2 million dollars in fines for those violations, but Murray has paid only a quarter of that amount. That's typical over the last six years, as MSHA has grown more lax about both levying and collecting fines.
Of course, the real price of operating these mines without proper safety isn't measured in dollars. The real cost is what's been so horribly illustrated 1,800' below Utah over the last week.
The next time you get a chance to talk to a presidential candidate, ask them what they're going to do about MSHA.
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