[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5292-5293]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    MINING TRAGEDY IN WEST VIRGINIA

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, as the Presiding Officer would well 
understand from his own experience, West Virginia is mourning the loss 
of 29 brave miners who died last week--most of whom never knew what hit 
them--when a devastating explosion tore through the Upper Big Branch 
Mine in Montcoal, WV. It has brought the whole State to a dead halt. 
Even though it may never be possible to fully grasp the magnitude of 
this tragedy or to ease the pain of this devastating loss, we in West 
Virginia believe strongly in the power of prayer and in the grace of 
God. That has been important this week and will be in the weeks to 
come. We hold onto it--that feeling--and we offer it to one another and 
to the families, friends, and fellow miners who are grieving.
  We revere our miners--the men and women who put their lives on the 
line every single day to provide for their families and bring light and 
heat to millions. They live in obscurity. They work underground. Nobody 
knows much about it around the rest of the country, but it is heroic 
living, and they make this country work.
  We offer a heartfelt thanks to the rescue workers who risked their 
own lives. Our rescue teams, and the entire West Virginia community, 
never gave up hope and continued to forge ahead in their mission. They 
know and understand when they volunteer for this dangerous work that at 
some point in time they will be called upon to put their own lives on 
the line in the mine. That is what a rescue worker is all about--
pushing the edges. How much methane is there, how far can you get in, 
how much dust is there, what can you see, does he or she have enough 
oxygen? They did so selflessly and fearlessly, and they have, as you 
can imagine, my deepest respect.
  Even in one of our darkest hours, America has seen the very best of 
West Virginia--binding together, drawing solace from each other with 
tears and with mutual love. This is who we are. This is Appalachia. It 
is the sense of oneness, always against so many odds. The odds are 
always stacked against us. Maybe that is why I am so proud to represent 
them--always fighting uphill, others not knowing much about you, not 
necessarily paying a lot of attention to you but strong, good people. 
So it is this sense of oneness that sets us apart, in my mind, and why 
I am so proud to be a West Virginian.
  We are all too familiar with this agony. I know the Presiding Officer 
is. We have been here before--with Sago, with Aracoma. When our worst 
fears are realized, as they were in this terrible tragedy, we know we 
must find a way through the searing pain and the loss because that is 
the way it is in our Appalachia--central Appalachia.
  Everybody understands that mining has always been risky, but it can 
be made safer by people who want to make it safer. That will often 
start with the person who is in charge of the company. Safety is about 
a company doing the right thing. Safety is also about the State and 
Federal Government stepping in and toughening up our laws where that 
needs to be done. It is about providing the resources and the people to 
enforce those laws.
  Let me give an example. Currently, the Federal Mine Safety and Health 
Review Commission has 14 administrative law judges. If this year's 
budget request is enacted, they will have 18. They will go from 14 to 
18. Those 18--and right now those 14--administrative law judges, 
together, face a backlog of more than 16,000 cases, containing 82,000 
violations. That is incomprehensible to me. It is ridiculous, but it is 
true and it is unacceptable.
  In the aftermath of Sago, I was proud to coauthor the MINER Act, 
along with Senator Byrd, Senator Kennedy, and Senator Mike Enzi from 
Wyoming. This was, in fact, the only significant Federal mine 
legislation since 1977, which meant that we had gone 30 years without 
passing significant mine safety legislation. That doesn't tell the 
whole story, but it certainly tells some part of the story.
  The bill was not perfect, but it did tackle the core problems we 
faced at Sago, which was a different kind of mine. It was a very rural 
mine, a much smaller mine than this huge mine in Raleigh County, WV. 
Because of this bill, we now require that mines have flame-resistant 
lifelines to guide miners out in an emergency. If you have an 
explosion. There is dust everywhere. You cannot see anything. So you 
put in sort of like a handrail, and you hold on to it and you just 
follow that because you cannot see where you are going. That will lead 
you to the mine mouth or perhaps to an elevator, if it is still 
working, that will allow you to get out.
  We require refuge chambers that are now located in mines to protect 
miners if they cannot evacuate. Those are safe havens that have oxygen 
and food. There are stores of breathing devices along the escape 
routes--part of the law now.
  We have new flammability requirements for new belt equipment. I know 
that is mining jargon, but I lay it before the Senate. Yet despite 
these important improvements, we mourn now another disaster of a very 
different kind. More lives were lost. We ask: How can this be? Again?
  Everything we know at this time tells us this accident did not have 
to happen. This explosion could have and should have been prevented. If 
you are asked by a coal miner: Does an explosion have to happen? The 
answer is, no; it is preventable. Yes, that is easy to say and hard to 
do. But in the real world of serious work in mine safety, it is 
preventable. Miners do not have to lose their lives.
  So our responsibility now is to learn from this new and terrible 
incident. We have to look at it carefully. We cannot rush to judgment. 
I am going to explain a couple of things that are being done. We do not 
know exactly what went wrong at Upper Big Branch mine but I promise you 
we will demand answers, and we will get answers.
  MSHA, which is the Mine Health and Safety Administration, will 
conduct a complete investigation into this tragedy, and that will tell 
us a lot. The agency's quick response and leadership after this 
explosion has been, in my judgment, highly commendable.
  Right now, what we do know is we need to enforce aggressively the 
provisions of the MINER Act that we passed several years ago in 2006 at 
all mines. Where they are needed, we must put new laws in place, 
understanding that mine operations are different. Some mines try to do 
the right thing, others try less hard. It is a hard job.
  I am concerned that the enforcement process today moves much too 
slowly, and that hurts the good operators as well as helping the bad 
ones, even when the circumstances demand the most urgent response.
  Today, mine safety operators can stop operations in a mine or part of 
a mine whenever they see imminently dangerous violations. That is in 
the eye of the beholder, of the inspector, which means they have to be 
good people and well trained.
  Once the operator has addressed that problem, then there is no longer 
a violation and mining can continue. But these inspectors also look for 
a very interesting phenomena called ``patterns of violations.'' For 
that they have to look back over the last several years in a particular 
mine or a particular part of a mine to find out if there has been a 
pattern of violation, which, in and of itself, might not rise to the 
level of imminent danger, but could indicate that the mine needs to 
improve its safety.
  If they find a pattern, these Federal inspectors, they should be able 
to impose higher fines. If it is not corrected, they should be able to, 
as they are now, shut down a mine or just part of a mine

[[Page 5293]]

where there is a particular problem. This mine where the explosion 
occurred was huge. It had numerous double-digit entrances into 
different parts of the mine. It was huge.
  But, anyway, closing down a mine or part of a mine does not always 
work that way because companies have found a loophole in this part of 
the law, the part dealing with so-called ``patterns of violations.'' 
They just keep contesting and appealing. They appeal and they appeal 
right on up to Federal court. They appeal the decisions to prevent the 
finding of a pattern. That is why they do it. If you do not want 
something to happen, if you do not want to pay a fine, you have been 
cited for a violation, you have been cited for a fine. But if you 
appeal it, if you appeal it long and keep appealing, then, if you get a 
judgment against you, you go to the next court higher up, you do not 
have to either pay a fine or change the way you operate.
  The number of appeals has increased dramatically from just 6 percent 
of total violations in 2005 to 27 percent last year. With such a 
tremendous backlog of cases and limited manpower, the average appeal 
took 587 days to finalize last year, which is bad for everybody. Some 
operators have taken advantage of this loophole, preventing government 
action and imposing a serious risk to the miners' safety.
  West Virginians can rest assured that I plan to press this issue 
aggressively. We are already taking steps to get to the bottom of this. 
I am glad that President Obama has been involved, and he has called a 
lot of folks, including miners' families. He has requested a full 
report to him on what Federal investigators have learned about the 
disaster, and it is going to happen this week.
  Now, maybe that is too early. They may not know everything yet. But 
he wants to be kept abreast of what is happening. I have asked, and 
others, for a full briefing on the findings for West Virginia's 
Congressional Delegation. I decided that was not selfish; I decided 
that was the right thing to do. I want to know what the President 
knows, and that is going to happen.
  I have requested that MSHA conduct a top-to-bottom review of all mine 
safety violations all across the country so that we can get a sense of 
perspective of where we are in this mine and others in other States. 
And I have also requested hearings and oversight investigations from 
the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. They 
were kind enough to allow me to sit with them during the hearings 
regarding the MINER Act so that I could contribute what I know.
  In closing, I wish to say our coal miners have lost too many brothers 
and too many sisters. Coal mining has always been dangerous, and it is 
a common story in West Virginia--southern West Virginia particularly--
which is where I first went, where there is so much coal mining that 
mothers do not want their sons to go into coal mining. But there they 
are living up a hollow, up a creek. No other work is available, and 
they can get paid $60 to $70,000 for doing this job after some 
training.
  What are they meant to do? What if it is a mine which does not have 
any kind of representation which allows people to tell somebody in 
authority that something is not being done safely?
  Well, we have mines where the operators use intimidation. If somebody 
tries to do something like that, they are out of a job. There are all 
kinds of ways to do that. And while we all know their journey is a 
dangerous one, our coal miners must know that everything is being done 
to keep them safe. That is why I am standing here, simply to say that.
  We have a solemn, urgent and, I think, sacred obligation in Congress 
to find the truth, do it fairly and carefully, and take action in their 
honor. These men have given us all they can, and we must honor this 
sacrifice.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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