I THINK MINING

From Senator Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) webpage dated October 19, 2006:

Even though Senators had raised serious doubts about Richard Stickler, the nominee to be Director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), President Bush today circumvented the Senate by recess appointing Stickler. Following that appointment, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who helped craft this year’s MINER Act — the most significant mine safety legislation in a decade — issued the following reaction:

“President Bush today has essentially said that the safety of our miners in West Virginia and across the country is a not a priority. Over the course of the last year, U.S. Senators from Coal States across the country have said that Richard Stickler is not the right person to carry out this absolutely critical job. The mines he ran when he was in the industry were some of the most dangerous and most frequently cited for safety violations in the entire industry. His mines had a rate of preventable accidents that was as much as three times the national average. In fact, despite broad bipartisan support for new, more aggressive mine safety laws, Richard Stickler said in his Senate nomination hearing that no new laws were necessary. “The MINER Act we passed earlier this year was the right first step toward protecting our miners. But the appointment of Richard Stickler today to enforce and carry out that law is the decidedly wrong decision.”

The blogsphere is awash in negative commments on this act by Bush and cohorts. Here is just one pro-statement I could find:

Prior to his nomination, Stickler was director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety from 1997 to 2003. Mine Safety and Health Administration data show mine injuries in the state decreased and state data also confirm that injury rates fell and enforcement activity increased during his tenure as director. Stickler has more than 37 years of mining experience, including management of underground and surface operations. Stickler began his career as a coal miner, captain of a mine rescue team, and shift foreman, working his way up the ladder to superintendent and mine manager. Stickler was one of the architects of the dramatic rescue of nine miners at the Quecreek Mine in Pennsylvania in 2002 when he served as a planner and decision-maker at the mine site command center during the entire rescue operation.

For the rest, it is uniformly negative. Here are two that stike me as damning:

Blog 1: But when Stickler testified on his nomination before our Labor Committee this spring, he displayed total apathy about the plight of coal miners and their safety. His testimony followed the tragic accidents at the Sago and Alma mines. Men had just died in the coals mines. Time and again, his response to the most pressing questions on mine safety was that he needed to think about it.

Blog 2: At his Senate confirmation hearing, Stickler declined to endorse new mine safety rules, such as those passed by the West Virginia Legislature in January in response to the Sago explosion that killed 12 miners and other mine deaths.

I cannot confirm this, but I am told informally that Stickler’s appointment expires near the end of this year. Personally I think he should be man and gentleman enough to resign immediately and not wait. But assuming he hangs on like so many political appointees, let us hope that the Senate has the power this time to reject him out of hand, and Bush does not have the gaul to re-appoint him during the Christmas recess.

Regardless of who or what is to blame for the Huntington Mine situation: Bob Murray; MSHA; Agapito; mine-induced seismicity; bad mining practices; absence of unions; earthquakes; Spanish-speaking miners; and so on, Mr Stickler cannot continue. He is “ultimately” responsible in a moral and “legal” sense. He has failed. He must now do the right and honorable thing: resign.

I can live with the thought that Bob Murray represents the face of mining–I know he is, even though he is no poster boy. Moreover, he apparently got there by hard work, guts, determination, and legal means. All manifest American values we can admire without liking (or even admiring) the man.

But to think that Stickler will continue as the face of the government and its control of mining and folk like Bob Murray is unacceptable. Particularly when he got there by extra-legal means. It’s absurd and un-American although becoming all too common. It’s enough to frighten away any youngster thinking of becoming a miner. This is not a case of being a Republican or Democrat, a Libertarian or a Socialist. This is the image of mining, its reputation as an industry, and its social license to mine. Can you blame young people if they choose not to become miners or soldiers when their fellows are dying because of the failure to act by those with power and position?

Maybe just once, Bush will do the decent and honorable thing. Dream on, Jack.