Ouch. After two separate government reports in ten days slammed Elaine Chao’s negligence on mine safety, her hometown paper decided to speak up. The paper is rightly furious: Elaine Chao’s negligence is inexcusable. (The editorial’s last sentence is the best.)

Why the delay? Yes, there’s a shortage of required equipment. But also, coal operators say they can’t get a straight answer from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration about what should be in their emergency response plans. But, the Government Accountability Office says enforcement of more than 350 citations written since 2006 by MSHA, for unsafe practices and conditions, varies widely.

What seems to be happening is that George W. Bush’s coal regulators, working under Labor Secretary Elaine Chao of Kentucky, are marking time until they get marching orders from the next administration.

If coal miners and their advocates, as opposed to coal industry givers, were part of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s re-election money machine, you might see some action.

Republicans like Big Coal. Their party took some $2 million from the mining industry in the 2006 election cycle alone. And Sen. McConnell objects to any suggestion that there’s something wrong with that.

Easy for Mr. McConnell and Ms. Chao to say. They don’t have to make a living in needlessly dangerous holes in the ground.

Read the whole thing.

In the wake of last week’s Inspector General report faulting Elaine’s MSHA for its negligence in preventing the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that killed 9 people, the Salt Lake Tribune is now questioning Elaine’s deafening silence:

Seven months since the Crandall Canyon mine disaster and two damning investigative reports later, the head of the federal department overseeing the Mine Safety and Health Administration isn’t talking.

Labor Department Secretary Elaine Chao hasn’t commented publicly about the Utah disaster, or criticisms of MSHA’s actions before and during the disaster, since she set up an independent panel in August to investigate the agency.

Why is Elaine so silent? Perhaps because she knows she’s somewhat responsible for the highly-publicized mine tragedies that have occurred under her watch. Elaine’s PR mouthpiece, however, has a different take:

Election-year partisan attacks go with the territory, but this zeal for exploiting tragedy, politically interfering with enforcement investigations, and making baseless smears ignores the truth.

Nice try, but we think two investigations that have placed the blame on MSHA are more credible than the spin gyrating out of Elaine’s public affairs office. As Utah’s leading newspaper asks:

Has Chao read the reports? Held meetings or talked with MSHA boss Richard Stickler? Is she concerned with the flaws ticked off in those reports? Does she plan to change any of the leadership of the agency, or leave those under fire as is?

The families who lost loved ones, and the American people who have watched the tragedies unfold in shock and awe, are waiting for an answer.

Each time the Labor Department’s Inspector General issues a report exposing the agency’s wrongdoings, Elaine’s legacy keeps getting worse.

So in light of recent news reporting MSHA’s negligence in preventing the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster that killed nine people, one question remains - how will Elaine Chao be held accountable?

According to the Inspector General’s report:

MSHA was negligent in carrying out its responsibility to protect the safety of miners. […]

MSHA’s actions and inactions, taken as a whole, lead us to conclude that [the administration] lacked care and attention in fulfilling its responsibilities to protect miners.

This report flat out says Elaine’s MSHA failed in its sole responsibility: protecting miners. What this report shows is the complete failure of Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor to hold her agency to even the most minimal standards of safety.
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We’ve spent quite some time detailing Elaine’s refusal to protect workers from combustible dust, particularly OSHA’s negligence in issuing an emergency standard after the wave of recent refinery explosions throughout the United States.

Witnessing the Labor Department’s continued stonewalling on worker safety, a Kentucky miner is now suing MSHA to tighten the limit on coal miners’ exposure to coal dust that causes the fatal black lung disease.

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The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education and Pensions, chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), recently issued a report calling for the prosecution of Robert Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where 9 people died in 2006 and one of Mitch McConnell’s political contributors.

You remember Murray - one of Mitch McConnell’s “five finest men in America.” Murray has a history of bullying MSHA so he can get his way. As the Salt Lake Tribune reported:

Most egregiously, the report alleged, Murray Energy was mining into what little was left of the south barrier pillar after being told directly by an MSHA inspector not to cut that coal. The company also violated its mining plan by taking several feet of coal out of the mine’s floor, elongating the pillars and making them extra vulnerable to failure.

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Our mine safety campaign demanding accountability from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) over mine deaths has been quite successful. We sent 10,000 letters to Richard Stickler, Elaine’s mine safety czar, and he responded with a letter overflowing with the spin typical of Elaine’s minions.

With so much negative media attention aimed at MSHA, Richard Stickler wants to set the record straight - he has no responsibility in the continued incompetence of the agency he manages.

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Back in October, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller called out the Department of Labor and Bob Murray of Murray Energy Corporation for refusing to aid the investigation into the deaths of nine men at Crandall Canyon Mine, and issued an ultimatum:

Let me be very clear: this committee will not be deterred from getting all of the information we need to do our independent investigation. We will not tolerate obstruction or delay by either the Department or by the company in pursuit of that information and this investigation.

He wasn’t kidding. The committee announced today that it issued subpoenas for two top officials at Murray Energy, including Mr. Bob Murray himself.

Murray has been confronted about safety problems at his mines before, and had some choice words about why he shouldn’t be held accountable. The Herald-Leader tells the story best:

Millionaire coal magnate Bob Murray knew the name to drop in September 2002, when Mine Safety Health Administration inspectors confronted him about safety problems at his mines: Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Murray, a large man with a fierce temper, is a huge donor to Republican senators. McConnell, R-Ky., rose through the ranks by raising money for those senators. And McConnell is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, whose agency oversees MSHA.

Shouting at a table full of MSHA officials at their district office in Morgantown, W.Va., Murray said: “Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss,” according to notes of the meeting.

Ahem. We’ll just let that speak for itself.

Many of us watched in horror last summer as miners lost their lives in the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah, and before that, the disasters at Sago, Darby and Aracoma mines. After multiple debacles, you’d think the government would make mine safety a top priority. Think again. We’ve brought you recent reports uncovering a huge failure at the federal agency in charge of mine safety. We’ve learned that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) did not impose fines on more than 4,000 safety & health violations over the last six years for mines that broke regulations.

Richard Stickler is now Elaine’s assistant secretary for mine safety. Given what you know about Elaine’s Labor Department, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that Stickler used to be a coal mining executive. The mines he managed had injury rates that were double the national average. Senators didn’t find him to be very qualified for the job, and twice rejected his nomination. President Bush twice bypassed the Senate to appoint Stickler, despite loud protests from anyone familiar with his egregiously anti-safety record.

As the man responsible for mine safety in this country, Richard Stickler needs some help. Send a note to MSHA Administrator Richard Stickler.

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