Reply #19: Yes and no [View All]

[karynnj]

The bill that was written about 3 years ago was supposed to deal with many of the known problems that led to Sago. From some of the accounts on TV, this mine did have improvements that came from that bill, but obviously they were completely inadequate and likely standards were not enforced to the degree they should have been.

The real question will be whether the factors - especially the high methane levels - were in violation of the law. In that case, the problem was lack enforcement. That is outside Rockefeller's area, though of course, if his constituents knew the rules were not being enforced, he and Bryd are the people they could appeal to to push the issue with the appropriate person in the right federal government agency. (So, a second question would be if he ignore such complaints) The state also regulates the mines, but that does not diminish the federal responsibility.

So, here, the legislation after Sago was an attempt to avoid similar problems in the future. (and obviously it was after the Sago disaster.) From the huge number of violations, the question is whether the legislation should be tightened to close places that have more than a certain numbr of serious violations. ( My hope, that all of WV would disagree with, is that within a decade or so, coal mining becomes non-economic because it is so heavily penalized for its carbon emissions. )