President Obama: More needs to be done for mine safety

[cal04]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/04/obama-more-needs-to-be-done-for-mine-safety/1

President Obama said today that the West Virginia mine disaster proves that "more needs to be done" to improve safety, and his aides are preparing a report on this week's explosion that killed at least 25 miners.

The Department of Labor and the Mine Safety and Health Administration are looking at "what went wrong and why it went wrong so badly, so that we can take the steps necessary to prevent such accidents in the future," Obama said during brief remarks in the Rose Garden.

The president offered condolences for what has been "an unimaginably difficult week" for the people of Montcoal, W.Va. Obama praised the round-the-clock efforts of rescuers and said, of the four miners who remain missing, that "we are praying for a miracle."

Coal mining is always risky, Obama said, and the government and businesses owe it to their miners and their families "to do everything possible to ensure their safety when they go to work each day."

[Exultant Democracy]

1. Sure, but as a matter of perspective there are plenty of more dangerious fish to fry

unfortunately for us Regan killed the unions, otherwise we could focus on fighting with the coal industry over pollutions and other environmental standards.

[LisaM]

2. We all know went wrong

Reagan, union-busting, profiteering, and Bush's terrible, terrible mine safety director, Dick Stickler. I actually called the White House when they appointed that criminal.

[Blue Owl]

3. Then more needs to be done for Unions

and less needs to be done for bottom-line profiteers like Blankenship.

Exactly the opposite is happening.

[LisaM]

4. I know

I'm sorry, but there is no need to appoint a freaking commission. Review the safety rules, tighten them where necessary, make new laws with teeth in them, and give financial incentives to unionized mines.

The problems will vanish.