Obama Administration Missed Chance To Get Tougher On Unsafe Mines

[Karmadillo]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/10-2

Published on Saturday, April 10, 2010 by Huffington Post
Obama Administration Missed Chance To Get Tougher On Unsafe Mines
by Dan Froomkin

Long before the explosion that killed at least 25 coal miners inside Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine on Monday, Obama administration mine safety officials were aware of a major loophole that allowed companies like Massey to avoid stricter enforcement despite alarming safety records.

<edit>

Joe Main, a former United Mine Worker of America official, took over the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, pronounced em-sha) in October. He told a congressional hearing in February that the backlog has effectively prevented MSHA from applying the stepped-up enforcement mechanisms to mines with a pattern of serious violations.

"And I think the consequence there is that mines have the ability to continue that pattern unabated," he said. His conclusion: "e must diminish the incentives for operators who appear to be developing a pattern of significant and substantial safety violations to contest, simply to delay enforcement."

But that was in February -- at a hearing called by a concerned chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).

And according to Celeste Monforton, a George Washington University public health professor and former MSHA official, Obama administration officials had known of the problem for more than a year by then.

"I feel very confident that when the presidential transition teams in December and January were meeting with the senior career people in the agency," she said, "they heard that, one, there's a huge backlog in the review commission and, two, this is neutering, or making impotent, the pattern of violations provision of the Mine Act."

So, Monforton told HuffPost, "The question is: 'What did you do, knowing on January 21st that they're gaming the system? What did you do?'

"It doesn't look like they did anything."

Actually, the Obama administration did add four administrative law judges to the panel of 10 charged with ruling on the contested violations, in an attempt to somewhat reduce the backlog. And they've now requested four more.

But the basic rule that the companies are exploiting remained unchanged.

more...

[ShortnFiery]

1. Why am I not surprised?

:(

[jefferson_dem]

2. Because...

you believe/create every conceivably negative scenario involving this President.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. It's not the posters fault that the Obama admin did nothing until 29 people died.

Whose fault would you say it is? If not the Obama admin, I mean?

[jefferson_dem]

7. Of course it's not the poster's fault Obama is President.

No blame. No credit.

I was merely responding to the question. Perhaps it was meant to be rhetorical.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. The poster notices what a lot of us have noticed; Obama seems to bend over backwards for his

corporate contributors, or potential corporate contributors.

My guess is you believe that's a good thing, that Obama seems to be unwilling to cross corporate America on anything substantial.

I tend to agree with the poster. I think it's a bad thing.


I donated repeatedly to the Obama campaign, I spent hundreds of hours volunteering. The way things are going, that won't be happening again.

I'm tired of corporate Democrats pushing a Republican agenda, both here at home and aboard.

[theHandpuppet]

14. Yeah, I guess it wouldn't have anything to do with Obama's track record

:sarcasm:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/theHandpuppet/92

Read it.

[Bluebear]

15. That's quite a collection.

Have you posted that as a separate thread or was it locked as "too inflammatory"? It at least merits discussion.

[theHandpuppet]

21. I posted that thread during the primaries

It got no response so I tucked it away in my DU journal.

[jefferson_dem]

16. Weak.

"CHANGE? What a laugh!!!!!...some of you Obama folks..."

Obama has long been a supporter of clean coal. Nothing new in your loaded diatribe.

[choie]

18. yes, he does; however, there's one problem...

there IS no such thing as clean coal.

[jefferson_dem]

20. Best get to editing wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_coal

That's a joke, by the way. I'm actually agnostic on "clean coal" as an alternative energy solution. Could take it or leave it.

[theHandpuppet]

23. Truth hurts, doesn't it?

You have no rebuttal to the contents so you just attack me personally. Sorry, but I've been around here too long to give a whit about your silly response.

[jefferson_dem]

24. Stating that I find your cut-pastes with bold accents unoconvincing = attacking you personally?

Ok.

Sorry, there's nothing to rebut ... beyond what i've already noted in this thread.

[walldude]

17. Except there is a link, and a few posts down there is a link to many stories

compiled including direct quotes from Obama. Are you denying all this?

If you have some evidence to discredit these claims show it. Please.

[jefferson_dem]

19. There are links to stories about how Obama supports coal mining.

Does that mean he has blood on his hands in this disaster? Of course not.

Anyway, my original response/answer to the poster stands.

[stray cat]

3. It seems like WV should have some responsibility for their mines....

[hootinholler]

9. If Boss Hog Blankenship didn't own WV

They might take some responsibility.

-Hoot

[Bluebear]

12. State's rights, eh?

[John Q. Citizen]

4. Obama wants to work with mining corporations, not regulate them. Illinois is a coal state, and

there is a lot of money in not regulating corporations, apparently.

[Captain Hilts]

10. He's capable of finding a middle ground between any two opposite positions. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

13. 29 dead workers are buried in that "middle ground" right now! But who cares about them when we have

such a wonderful President?

[Orsino]

11. "No one could have foreseen the explosion of the mine." n/t

[bluestateguy]

22. Strikes me as false

nt

[Karmadillo]

25. Why?

nt