Here’s the text of a letter Rep. Shelley Moore Capito sent to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis:
On Monday, April 5, 2010, this country witnessed yet another tragic mining disaster in my home state of West Virginia. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones and still await any news of their fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, and cousins at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine.
As the review into this accident proceeds, we need to know more information that fully answers questions about where it happened, why it happened, and under what circumstances. I am confident there will be a thorough investigation conducted into all of these matters.
The first priority and concern of all in the coal industry must be the health and safety of the men and women who work in the mines. The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 established health and safety standards for all mine operators to follow and included strong enforcement tools for active oversight by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Four years ago, twelve miners were killed at the Sago mine in my district. In response to Sago and the other mine disasters that followed, Congress enacted the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) in June 2006. The MINER Act was an important step in addressing the urgent gaps in mine safety protections and after Congress forced MSHA to make changes, we were recently told that a new day had arrived.
Disasters such as this serve as a reminder that the safety of our nation’s mines and miners has not been met and must be a priority for this Administration, MSHA and mine operators. As we have seen in the last few days, MSHA’s current system still faces significant challenges. MSHA’s primary responsibility is to oversee and enforce safe mining practices. We now know that even with increased funding we have hundreds of inspectors who are not sufficiently trained, an inspection process that creates bottlenecks putting more miners at risk and a massive problem that at its core means MSHA can bury a faulty company with mountains of paperwork while the company can continue questionable mining practices.
Accountability starts at home. Mine operators are responsible for the safety and conditions of the men and women who work in our mines. Upper Big Branch Mine has a history of violations. In 2009, MSHA cited 515 violations and ordered the mine closed 29 times. Upper Big Branch Mine has had 124 violations in 2010 already. In fact, MSHA faulted the Upper Big Branch Mine on the day of the explosion for inadequate maps of escape routes and an improper splice of electrical cable on a piece of equipment. It falls on both the mining company and the regulatory agency to make sure that a mine is safe and in this instance both failed.
I ask that as we move forward, we take a long hard look at the relationship of mine operators and MSHA and how we could have prevented this disaster.
We cannot forget the grief and suffering of the families, friends and coworkers of the miners who died. We must continue to build on the important foundation of past mine safety legislation to prevent tragedies that we have seen in West Virginia and across the nation from being repeated.
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It drives me NUTS that the same rhetoric comes out of every politicians’ mouths after every disaster yet the disasters seem to compound ten fold.