If MSHA hasn’t been doing anything wrong, you wouldn’t know it by the actions of David Dye, who walked out of the hearings, saying he had more important things to do. (NY Times, Charleston Gazette)

Additionally, the WV legislature passed a major piece of Mine Safety Legislation yesterday. (Charleston Gazette, Charleson Daily Mail) It creates a Mine and Industrial Accident Rapid Response System, to respond to mine accidents, would create an electronic tracking system for miners, and most importantly, imposes $100,000 fines upon mines that do not report accidents immediately. Delayed reporting occurred in both the Sago and Aracoma Alma mines.

There will also be SCSRs (Self-Contained Self Rescuer, which are oxygen tanks for miners to use when the air becomes unsafe) placed throughout the mine, so that miners should be less likely to run out of oxygen, such as happened in Sago.

We can hope that this legislation will be combined with increased vigilance at MSHA, to save the lives of miners in the future. We can also hope that these steps will serve as a guide to countries like China, where mine safety is now is where it was in the United States a century or more ago.

(For more mine news, see also The Logan Banner)