Big Coal runs ad pledging to 'continue the work' to protect miners

[Enrique]

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/91621-mine-group-ad-mourns-miners-deaths-pledges-to-improve-mine-safety

The trade association that represents coal companies released a print ad Monday mourning the 29 miners who died in the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion last week. The National Mining Association’s ad also pledges to “continue the work” to protect miners. See the ad here.

“It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of the 29 miners who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch coal mine accident,” the ad states. “We know our words today cannot soften the wrenching experiences of the families, friends and communities of these proud individuals.”

Congressional Democrats say they will re-examine mine safety laws in light of the devastating explosion, the deadliest coal mine blast in four decades.

The first questions are likely to come on Wednesday at a House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing ostensibly about coal and climate change. Executives from three mining companies are expected to be asked about mine safety. Officials from Massey Energy, which owns the Upper Big Branch mine, are not scheduled to attend Wednesday's hearing.

The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee has also pledged to hold hearings on the disaster. The disaster is likely to bring new focus on legislation backed by the chairman, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), to strengthen mine safety laws updated as recently as 2006.

The National Mining Association opposed the Miller bill because it said it could create confusion and delay safety improvements called for under the 2006 mine safety act, which Congress passed following an explosion at Sago mine in West Virginia that killed 12.

(...)

[Captain Hilts]

1. The Capitol Hill metro station was plastered with ads for 'Clean Coal' for months. nt

[havocmom]

2. Read the book "Goodbye Wifes & Daughters" to see what promises are worth

Book, by Susan Kushner Resnick, is about an awful mining disaster (scores of miners killed) in a small Montana town, back during WWII. All the same problems, gassy mine, coal dust not dealt with properly, half-assed attention to pretending to work toward miner safety....

Only difference between then and now: The disaster THEN is what triggered movement toward real mine safety regulations and inspection/enforcement. Of course, all those regulations and enforcement of same just gets in the way of commerce, so it is all pretty much just pretend now.

Results are the same: Workers going down into death-trap sites while the fat cats reap more profits than are morally acceptable.

Read the book. It takes it down to a very personal level. Then read the news and see how we are going backward in America. It's about class warfare. Always has been. Probably always will be.

[DCKit]

3. Does the concept of corporate personhood allow for involuntary committment?

Clearly they are delusional - "continuing" something they never began.

"Negligent Homicide" always starts with "negligence".