Mine safety matters

The immediate focus after 12 miners died in the hills of West Virginia was on the heart-rending effects of miscommunication, which led to a churchful of friends and relatives celebrating for hours a false report that their loved ones had survived.
Questions about what led to the miscommunication are important and will be answered -- it appears that the statement by rescuers closest to the scene that they had 12 bodies, one alive became 12 bodies, all alive by the time it was relayed to the surface. But the more important question is whether these deaths were avoidable, even in such an inherently dangerous pursuit as coal mining.
This question takes on additional importance because coal mining is in a resurgence as the cost of other energy sources -- most notably natural gas -- increases. At the same time, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has lost 170 positions and its budget has been cut in recent years.
Avoiding responsibility
And, as the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader reported, when there is a tragedy, mine operators seem to avoid taking responsibility. Just four years ago, 13 miners died in an explosion in an underground mine in Brookwood, Ala. Then, as now, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration promised a thorough investigation. They eventually levied $435,000 in fines against the mine's operator, Jim Walters Resources. In November, the fines were reduced to just $3,000 by an administrative law judge who ruled that MSHA did not prove safety violations occurred.
That is no way to oversee a dangerous industry in the United States. We already have an example of what happens when mining is unregulated -- China, which loses miners by the hundreds, an average of 5,000 a year.