The Shadow
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Supporters of federal mine safety legislation hope that the final investigative report on West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch disaster will renew interest in the measure.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller is seeking support for the Robert C. Byrd Mine and Workplace Safety and Health Act. It would target problem mines for shutdown, increase penalties for serious safety violations and seek to protect whistle-blowers.
“It’s our hope that we can shake loose some movement on this bill quickly,” Rockefeller spokesman Vincent Morris said Thursday. “It’s taken way too long and Senator Rockefeller is eager to for progress now that the UBB investigation is over. There’s no excuse for not supporting this commonsense safety legislation.”
Rockefeller introduced the measure in January with West Virginia’s other U.S. senator, Democrat Joe Manchin, after a similar measure failed to clear the Republican-controlled U.S. House late last year. Critics of the earlier bill called it premature, as federal officials had not finished their investigation into the April 2010 explosion at Upper Big Branch that killed 29 coal miners, the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in four decades.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday blamed “systematic, intentional and aggressive efforts” by the Raleigh County mine’s then-owner, Massey Energy Co., to conceal life-threatening problems. Among other findings, the final report said managers went as far as maintaining two sets of pre-shift inspection books, one accurate set for itself and a fake set for regulators.
MSHA also cited witnesses who testified that “miners were intimidated by UBB management and were told that raising safety concerns would jeopardize their jobs,” agency officials said.
“As a result, no safety or health complaints and no whistleblower disclosures were made to MSHA from miners working in the UBB mine in the approximately four years preceding the explosion,” the report said. “This is despite an extensive record of (the mine’s and Massey’s) safety and health violations at the UBB mine during this period.”
Massey’s mindset allowed for the buildup of highly explosive methane gas and combustible coal dust that investigators said fueled the massive blast and its trigger, worn or broken cutting gear that caused sparks, the report said. Agency officials similarly blame the company, since acquired by Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, for the underground mine’s broken water sprayers that allowed a flare-up to become a deadly inferno.
Federal prosecutors this month announced the biggest settlement in a U.S. coal mining disaster with Alpha Natural Resources, which agreed to pay nearly $210 million to the victims’ families.
The House had rejected the 2010 version along party lines.
U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was among the GOP members who criticized its provisions as too severe, arguing then that it would hurt safely operated mines and their workers.
Capito on Thursday said the pending version includes language “absolutely worth examining,” and noted that she has included it in a mine safety bill that she introduced.
Those provisions include one that would create an independent accident investigative panel, and another that aims to increase protections for whistleblowers and penalties for employees who give prior notification of inspections, she said in a statement.
Such pre-inspection tipoffs are illegal, and investigators cited evidence that guards at Upper Big Branch sent out alerts by radio whenever inspectors entered the property.
“The MSHA report released earlier this week gives us renewed insight into the serious shortcomings in current mine safety standards,” Capito said. “There is no question that Congress needs to work in a non-partisan manner to closely examine the efficiency and effectiveness of mine safety laws, standards, rules and regulations. Our miners deserve nothing less.”
U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat who represents Raleigh County, said Thursday he wants Congress to stick with the Byrd bill, which he co-sponsored in the House.
“(It) contains provisions specifically aimed at addressing much of what we have learned through the investigations into the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy,” Rahall said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Republican Majority that now controls the House of Representatives is actively stonewalling the bill as well as other measures that could be taken to protect miners’ health and prevent further loss of life.”
U.S. Rep. David McKinley, a Republican in his first term, said in a Thursday statement: “I believe we must take the necessary steps to protect our miners while also allowing them to work and put food on their families’ tables. We must strike the right balance.”
