House Democrats Reintroduce Miner Safety Reforms
WASHINGTON – House Democrats reintroduced legislation today to bring the nation’s mine health and safety laws up to date, give mine safety officials the ability to effectively investigate and shut down habitually dangerous mines, and hold mine operators accountable for putting their workers in unnecessary danger. The Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Protection Act of 2013 is similar to legislation introduced in 2011.
“It’s been almost three years since the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. After numerous investigations, there are clear areas where we can do something to improve the health of safety of our nation’s miners,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “In the aftermath of Upper Big Branch, Democrats and Republicans alike promised the families who lost loved ones that we would do all we could to prevent another tragedy. Yet, three years on, Congress hasn’t been able do anything to fix our laws so that rogue operators are deterred from operating outside the margins of safety. It piles tragedy upon tragedy if these families have to wait until the next deadly event for Congress to act.”
Reps. Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Joe Courtney (D-CT) also joined Miller in introducing the legislation today.
“Less than a year ago, we dedicated a memorial to the 29 lives that were lost in the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in my home state of West Virginia, and as we approach the third anniversary of that terrible tragedy we rededicate ourselves preventing such a catastrophe from occurring again,” said Rep Rahall, top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “We must not wait for further loss of life from a preventable tragedy to act to bolster our mine safety laws that we know are inadequate. This legislation is an important step in making good on an obligation we have to health and safety of our courageous miners and their families.”
“It is incredibly troubling that in the nearly three years since the tragedy at Upper Big Branch, Congress has failed to enact meaningful legislation to ensure the safety of our nation’s miners,” said Rep. Courtney, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. “It is time for Congress to protect our nation’s miners, hold negligent operators accountable, and most importantly, take real steps to prevent future tragedies like the one that occurred at Upper Big Branch. American workers should not head out the door every morning, worried that they will never return home.”
On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion ripped through Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, killing 29 miners. Investigators found a widespread failure to comply with basic safety standards meant to prevent coal dust explosions and methane ignitions. In addition, the mine remained open despite having a history of chronic violations, repeated withdrawal orders and numerous fines. Investigations have uncovered a conspiracy by Massey officials to obstruct the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration by providing unlawful advance notice of underground inspections and modifying the operating conditions to mislead inspectors.
Weak penalties in the federal mine safety laws have even been criticized by a federal judge. The Utah federal judge addressing the 2007 Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that took the lives of six miners and three rescuers expressed “outrage at the miniscule amount of penalty provided by the criminal statute.” The subsidiary that operated the mine received a maximum penalty of only a $500,000 fine after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors for willfully violating mine safety laws, the maximum under the law.
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