Mine Enforcement ‘Broken,’ U.S. Regulator Main Says

Comment: VAUM is against uranium mining but showing the video because of the untruths in the video!  The dude says mining is highly regulated but we now know the truth. Mining regulations are broken and if uranium mining is not enforced, it will be another disaster just like the early years of uranium mining in America which we know are killing and has killed uranium miners and their families!  So people all over America, demand our government to stop uranium mining, protect the coal miners by enforcing the laws! 

April 27, 2010, 6:46 PM EDT
By Jeff Plungis and Holly Rosenkrantz

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. mine-safety system that let companies avoid civil penalties by appealing citations is “broken and must be fixed,” the administrator of the mining agency said in Senate testimony.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration will simplify the process for elevating enforcement at mines that have the most serious safety flaws, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joe Main said today at a Senate Health Committee hearing. The department will ask Congress to require that operators pay their fines into an escrow account while appeals are heard, Main said.

“We realize the current ‘pattern of violations’ program is broken and must be fixed,” Main said. “It is too easy for mine operators to evade responsibility and too hard for the government to hold bad actors accountable.”

Lawmakers and regulators are reviewing mine safety after 29 workers died at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, in an April 5 blast, the worst U.S. mining explosion in 40 years, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Health Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said strengthening “critical laws” on workplace safety is overdue. Massey was able to escape scrutiny from the mine-safety agency because it routinely contested citations for serious safety problems, Harkin said.

‘Unsafe Practices’

“This is an operator that, even in the wake of the worst mining disaster in recent history, continues to use such unsafe practices,” said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat.

The Senate testimony falsely painted Massey as a “renegade operator” avoiding federal safety inspectors, the company said today in a statement after the hearing. The Richmond, Virginia- based company’s accident record is “33 percent superior” to the average underground mine, it said.

“Massey Energy is disappointed that the Senate hearings today degenerated into political grandstanding,” according to the statement. “Unfortunately, all the sound bites in the world will not improve the safety of a single miner in America.”

Read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-27/mine-enforcement-broken-u-s-regulator-main-tells-senate.html