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Coal Mine Disasters Illustrate Need for Good Government

by Tommy Christopher | 7:29 pm, April 7th, 2010

» 11 comments

On her MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow devoted a segment to the tragic mine explosion that killed at least 25 miners in West Virginia on Monday. While the cause of the explosion is not yet known, the mine’s record of safety violations has become a focal point of the news coverage. In the month of March alone, the mine’s owner, Massey Energy, was cited 50 times, including failure to maintain proper escape routes and poor ventilation of dust and methane.

Maddow makes the excellent point that this industry has demonstrated, repeatedly, that it will not do the right thing unless forced to, and even then, often won’t. As you watch this segment, think about how this issue translates to industries like the financial and health care sectors.

I remember a few years ago agonizing along with the rest of America over the collective fate of 6 coal miners trapped in Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine. The six were never found, and 3 more people died in the rescue effort.

The mine’s owner, Robert Murray, got some good press initially by rolling up his sleeves at the site of the disaster, making frequent impassioned statements for the television cameras. At one point, Murray said “Had I known that this evil mountain, this alive mountain, would do what it did, I would never have sent the miners in here. I’ll never go near that mountain again,” a reference to his claim that an earthquake had caused the collapse.

As it turns out, the “earthquake” was actually the mine collapse itself. The collapse was caused by Murray’s desire to squeeze every last nickel out of that mine through a dangerous process called “retreat mining.” Although Murray denied it was being used, federal authorities say it was. The government fined Murray subsidiary Agapito Associates, concluding it had “directly contributed to the death of nine people.”

Retreat mining is the most dangerous type of mining there is, and it’s not hard to understand why when you read the description:

Retreat mining is a term used to reference the final phase of an underground mining technique known as room and pillar mining. This involves excavating a room or chamber while leaving behind pillars of material for support. This excavation is carried out in a pattern advancing away from the entrance of a mine. Once a deposit has been exhausted using this method, the pillars that were left behind initially are removed, or ‘pulled’, retreating back towards the mine’s entrance. After the pillars are removed, the roof (or back) is allowed to collapse behind the mining area. Pillar removal must occur in a very precise order in order to reduce the risks to workers, due to the high stresses placed on the remaining pillars by the abutment stresses of the caving ground.

So why do companies like Murray Energy take risks like this? Are they evil? No. Corporations are subject to the same laws of human nature that we are, but our government has been so tipped in their favor, they don’t have the same limits we do. If you decide not to get car insurance, it’s not because you don’t care if you get in an accident, it’s because you don’t think you will. The difference is, if you get caught not having insurance, your car will be impounded and you’ll be completely screwed.

Corporations, on the other hand, face fines that they can well afford, and which they often simply flout.

So the next time you hear some corporatist politician, Republican or Democrat, talking about “onerous regulations,” think about these coal miners, and don’t ask yourself who has their best interests at heart but, rather, who has interests that compete with them.

Massey Energy, mine explosion, Rachel Maddow, Robert Murray, Tommy Christopher, West Virginia mine explosion

http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

I’m no expert on coal industry regulation, so I don’t have any opinion about whether it is under or over regulated. But isn’t the argument here too simplistic?

First, aren’t there simply some industries and endeavors that are so dangerous that you’re always going to have some disasters no matter how much regulation you have? Take NASA. It’s not just regulated by the government; it is the government. And supposedly it recruits the best and the brightest. And, supposedly, they spend more time worrying about safety than any private industry. Yet, we had Apollo I, Apollo 13, Challenger, Colombia, etc. Maybe coal mining is like that. Maybe no matter how much you do, a tragedy like this is going to happen at some point. And, frankly, we really don’t know what caused this, whether it was because of the safety violations they had before, or whether any level of regulation would have prevented this.

When I here that a regulated industry fails in some way, I don’t automatically think that more regulation is the answer. Taking something that is ineffectual and adding more of it does not make it effective. Moreover, with any regulatory scheme, there is a point of diminishing returns, and a point of reversing returns.

Again, I have absolutely no idea what the situation is in the coal industry. I’m open to reasoned arguments that more regulations is necessary. But I don’t think that’s an automatic conclusion based on what we know here.
http://www.thecobraslair.com Cobra

Well,

As facts are coming out in THIS case…

“Over the last year, there has been a spike in fines for the operators of Upper Big Branch, many involving flagrant and repeated violations that were above the national average. Federal records showed the Massey Energy subsidiary received 548 citations in 2009 and 122 so far in 2010.

There were 58 last month alone, including almost daily citations related to proper ventilation or the dangerous accumulation of coal dust. J. Davitt McAteer, who once oversaw the nation’s mine safety administration, said Tuesday that he believes regulators should have known there was a problem brewing. “That’s a red flag. That’s saying, ‘wait a minute, something’s gone wrong here,’” he said. “

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/west-virginia-mine-disaster-repeated-safety-violations-red/story?id=10301990

It’s not only important to have regulations, but ENFORCEMENT of those said regulations. That takes GOVERNMENT, Finch, because we see the results of self-regulation in this incident.

–Cobra
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Uhm, Cobra, if they received 58 citations in the last month alone, that’s not self-regulation. Obviously, the government was enforcing the regulations; that’s exactly what a citation is. And that’s exactly my point. If 58 wasn’t enough, what makes you think 68, or 78, or 88 would have made a difference? It seems to me that either there is only an attenuated relationship (or no relationship) between the enforcement scheme and the prevention of this particular accident, or the entire regulatory scheme needs to be rethought because it’s not working.

Honestly, I’m just asking questions here. I don’t know the answers to any of those question, but is seems to me that saying “more regulation is needed” is a pretty superficial answer.
ImNotBlue

Can Mediaite provide a “Maddow Fluff” graphic for the stories? I know it’s mandatory to have 2 or 3 a day (some are relevant to cable news, some are just “hey, look at what she said,” and some are “there was news, and here’s Rachel’s view), but being that there are SO MANY of them… why not an identifier?

Or better yet, change “Mediaite,” to “Maddow-ite”… that way, instead of pretending to be a journalism site, that happens to be obsessed with Rachel Maddow… you can be a Maddow fan site, that happens to have a few other journalism-related stories.
annejaa

Absolutely true!The Government is overseeing the Safety.Its another example of how the government is inept! Think twice before asking the Government to solve a problem.
Farmville Secrets
Caryson

Mr. Maddow………

Don’t hold back! It’s all Bush’s fault!

This disaster was just another disaster your master inherited !
Fidoohki

Oddy enough, this is one of the industries Glenn Beck has said needs unions to look out for the workers. Combine that with an more receptive government and you can have a very effective deterrant I think.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

But then there’s Don Blankenship who purchased a W. Va S. Ct. seat, who gave $1 million to the Tea Party, who sits on the US Chamber board, and who is CEO of Massey

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/massey-energy-don-blankenship-million-dolla
TylerDurdin

Sorry, libs, this happened on Barry’s watch. BHO is responsible for the miners deaths.
timzank

The Feds cited the company and didn’t enforce. Government fail. You have tons of govt regs in place already.

also

The State of W Virginia is responsible to keep it’s citizens safe, no?

Governor: Democrat
Lt Governor Democrat
State Senate 76% majority Democrat
Chairman of Natural Resources Committee Democrat

White House: Democrats

House: Democrats

Senate: Democrats

That’s pretty simple isn’t it??
Averreauxii

Over-simplistic solutions and blaming going on here. Here is something I would advocate. There should be a system similar to that of your driving record. If you accumulate a certain number of citations within a certain period, you automatically lose your (business) license and the place gets shut down immediately. You appeal the decision when the business is shut down, not when it’s still in operation. This would incenitivize operators to be in compliance always or risk closure. Surprise mock inspections should be encouraged and done regularly just like school fire drills. This will of course lead to other issues such as bribing of officials, business management circumventing the regulations or just more bureaucracy in general. The answer as implied above is increasing stringent enforcement by an independent federal agency. That agency’s officials would not be localized but rotated nationally to avoid acclimation of business owners and the enforcement agency’s brass. I do not think unionization is the solution neither is further deregulation when it comes to safety standards.