Mine safety bill stalled in Congress

Federal regulators unveiled a scathing report Tuesday detailing systemic and flagrant violations of health and safety regulations by the operator of a West Virginia coal mine that exploded last year, killing 29 men.

But, more than a year and a half after the Upper Big Branch explosion, mine safety legislation that proponents say is necessary to prevent future disasters has stalled on Capitol Hill and has little chance of passing in the near future.

{mosads}Shortly after the April 5, 2010, Upper Big Branch disaster, Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation to bolster the nation’s mine safety rules, including provisions to hike fines for safety hazards; expand whistleblower protections; empower federal investigators to close unsafe mines more easily; and grant regulators subpoena power when investigating mining accidents.

The bill has never been taken up in the Senate and, though it was approved by a House committee, did not win the two-thirds majority required to pass the House last year.

The bill’s supporters said Tuesday they hoped the federal report and the agreement by Alpha Natural Resources, which merged with mine operator Massey Energy earlier this year, to pay $209 million in connection with the disaster would build momentum for the legislation.

“I hope we don’t just say well, we have had a settlement, they have put a lot of money in there and we can just move on,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, told reporters Tuesday.

But supporters acknowledged that the legislation faces an uphill battle to passage, citing Republican opposition.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said he was pessimistic about being about to approve the legislation, adding that he can “hardly get a Republican vote at all.”

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) praised the federal report on the Upper Big Branch disaster in a statement Tuesday, but did not say whether he would support mine safety legislation.

“Massey Energy’s failure to make safety a top priority forced miners to face greater danger in an inherently hazardous profession, and the people of West Virginia paid the price,” Kline said, noting that he would hold a hearing on the report.

California Rep. George Miller, the top Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and the House sponsor of the mine safety bill, said he hopes the report will prompt action in Congress, but added he is “not very optimistic at all.”

“This is out of mind until another explosion takes place,” he said.

Advocacy groups say passage of the mine safety legislation is necessary to prevent future mine disasters.

While the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has proposed new mine safety regulations in the aftermath of the Upper Big Branch disaster, the agency needs Congress to act as well, said Justin Feldman, worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen.

“MSHA doesn’t have subpoena power and whistle blower protections are very limited,” Feldman said.

But Feldman acknowledged that mine safety legislation faces major hurdles to passage.

“I don’t think it will happen any time soon unless there’s another disaster, which hopefully won’t happen,” he said. “I really don’t see the type of bipartisan cooperation to move forward.”

MSHA announced Tuesday that it has imposed $10.8 million in civil penalties on Massey, the largest fines in the agency’s history, officials said. Regulators issued Massey and its subsidiary 369 citations, according to the agency, including 21 “flagrant violations,” which carry the largest civil penalties.

{mossecondads}The agency also unveiled a report that showed Massey systematically violated federal safety standards and could have prevented the disaster.

The company “promoted and enforced a workplace culture that valued production over safety, including practices calculated to allow it to conduct mining operations in violation of the law,” the report said.

In addition, the report found that Massey used intimidation tactics to prevent miners from reporting safety violations, an issue that could be addressed through increased whistleblower protections included in the mine safety bill.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced it reached a settlement with Alpha Natural Resources to pay $209 million in connection with the Upper Big Branch disaster. The agreement absolves Alpha from further liability in the case, but leaves open the possibility that former Massey executives could be brought up on criminal charges.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis praised the agreement Tuesday, but vowed to continue working with the Justice Department to address criminal wrongdoing by Massey executives.

“While this agreement covers corporate prosecution, my department will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice to address any individual criminal wrongdoing uncovered by ongoing federal investigations,” she said. “Anyone determined to have violated a criminal statute in connection with Upper Big Branch should be brought to justice.”

—Ben Geman contributed to this story.

This story was updated at 4:47 p.m.