James Ridgeway writes at Mother Jones: Reformer Will Lead Probe Into Mining Disaster—But Will Government Back Him Up?
Davitt McAteer, who has spent 40 years fighting for safety reforms in the coal mining industry, will head an independent inquiry into the disaster at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine. Unlike some of the investigations that follow high-profile industrial disasters, McAteer's inquiry can be counted on to pull no punches. Whether his findings are acted upon and enforced, however, is another question. In an interview last week, McAteer told Mother Jones that the federal government all along had the authority to shut down the Upper Big Branch mine, which had "a record of terrible practices" and had been cited for numerous previous safety violations. The feds could have pulled the plug on Massey's operations until the safety problems were fixed, he said, "if they had the balls."
McAteer was appointed yesterday by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, but his inquiry, in which he'll lead a panel of experts of his choosing, is to be independent of separate state and federal investigations. "I want a transparent third party, that's not attached in any way, shape or form," Manchin told the AP. The governor, who like everyone who's held his position is friendly to the powerful coal mining industry in his state, now says he he wants to make sure state officials also have the right to shut down an unsafe mine. "If you have a serious violation that can cause what we had ... either I have the right to shut you down, or you have to act immediately," Manchin said. "I would rather err on the side of caution."
Well, maybe. McAteer, who served as the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the Clinton years, was also appointed to head up the investigation after the Sago mining disaster in January 2006. That one killed 12 miners. At the time, Manchin said during a press conference:
"These 12 lives will not be lost in vain" ...
Manchin and McAteer promised to hold public hearings as part of the investigation, and to issue a report by July 1.
"We will pursue every lead," said McAteer, who was head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton administration. "We will follow every avenue of inquiry, and we will take every step necessary to find the problems and to fix those problems."
McAteer released his report in July of 2006. MSHA did its own investigation. The Senate investigated. Twice. The House investigated. Subsequently, MSHA was pilloried in the media. Some new regulations were imposed. Yet, here we are again, four years later, with more dead miners in premature graves.
McAteer can be expected to do a good job. He knows about industrial disasters and owners like Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship who sneer at erring on the side of caution. His book (pictured above), Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster, the Worst Industrial Accident in US History, tells in detail about the 500 miners who lost their lives more than a century ago. All of them West Virginians.
At MSHA, Joe Main, a former coal miner having extensive experience with United Mine Workers health and safety division, has been in charge since late October. His Bush-appointed predecessor had previously headed a company with twice the average number of mining injuries. In 2009, even before Main came aboard, MSHA issued more than twice as many citations for violations of safety regulations than it had in the previous eight years. The confluence of 29 dead West Virginia miners, a changing of the guard at MSHA and McAteer's record of not sugarcoating his analyses offer some hope that maybe this time the government will get serious about doing what the agency was set up to do 41 years ago. But a million investigations and independent reports will do nothing if all their words don't generate action.
If the Upper Branch Mine disaster doesn't get some results, exactly how many widows and orphans will it take?
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007:
Legal Times has a chilling interview with a former Department of Justice Attorney, Daniel Metcalfe, who retired in January. Metcalfe's observations show what can happen when politics rule supreme, and the damage that can be done by a real estate lawyer turned presidential lackey.
Metcalfe explains that he had worked in the Department since 1971, under "more than a dozen attorneys general, including Ed Meese as well as John Mitchell, and I used to think that they had politicized the department more than anyone could or should. But nothing compares to the past two years under Alberto Gonzales."