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  • Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., questions panel members on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday during the Senate Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing on mine safety. Carolyn Kaster

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May 21, 2010

Byrd 'perplexed' about UBB explosion, rips Massey, MSHA

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

WASHINGTON — Given a rising flow to the Mine Safety and Health Administration of both money and manpower, a “perplexed” Sen. Robert C. Byrd wondered aloud Thursday how an explosion ripped through a southern West Virginia mine and killed 29 coal workers.

Sitting in a wheelchair, Byrd also said Massey Energy, owner of the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, has “much to explain” to both the families and the nation.

“I cannot fathom how an American business could practice such disgraceful health and safety policies while simultaneously boasting about its commitment to the safety of its workers,” the senator said.

Considering the “alarming record” of withdrawal orders leading up to the April 5 explosion, Byrd asked, “Where was the commensurate effort to improve safety and health?

“Nearly two months after that horrific explosion, I am perplexed as to how such a tragedy, on such a scale, could happen, given the significant increase in funding and manpower for MSHA, which have been provided by this (appropriations) committee,” he said.

Although the hearing was conducted in the Senate, Rep. Nick Rahall, also D-W.Va., who stayed at the Upper Big Branch mine site in the early aftermath of the explosion and attended victims’ funerals, said he is “closely following all testimony and investigations.”

Meantime, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., hailed the speedy approval of a House bill allowing the chamber’s Education and Labor Committee to take depositions, including via the use of subpoena, to examine underground mine safety.

“Congress has a very important oversight role to ensure that the laws are properly executed and to prevent future mine accidents,” she said.

“We need to make sure we have all available tools to properly conduct mine investigations in an open and transparent manner.”

Byrd, D-W.Va., pointed to MSHA’s recent inspection blitzes and new rules on pre-shift examinations and pattern violators.

“It is tragic that miners had to perish in order to precipitate such enforcement,” he said.

Byrd was on hand to hear Massey’s under-fire chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, defend his company’s safety record before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee, but afterward didn’t comment on what he heard.

Instead, he targeted his remarks largely at the federal enforcement agency.

“The Congress has authorized the most aggressive miner protection laws in the history of the world, but such laws are useless if the enforcement agency is not vigorous about demanding safety in the mines,” he said.

“These laws are also jeopardized when the miners themselves are not incorporated into the heart of the inspection and enforcement process, as Congress has intended them to be. Now is the time — in fact, long past the time — to cast off the fears, cronyism and other encumbrances that have shackled coal miners and MSHA in the past.”

Byrd said Joe Main, the assistant labor secretary for mine safety, and his cadre have much to explain about the Upper Big Branch disaster.

“I do not believe it was because of a lack of funding,” the senator said. “I do not believe that MSHA lacked enforcement authorities.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com



 

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