President Cracks Down on Mine Disaster Criminals

President Obama ordered a sweeping review of coal mine safety directing Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and her team to “work with the Justice Department to ensure that every tool in the federal government is available in this investigation” so that such disasters never happen again. “Owners responsible for conditions in the Upper Big Branch mine should be held accountable for decisions they made and preventive measures they failed to take.”

The President emphasized that while the investigation is ongoing, “we do know that this tragedy was triggered by a failure at the Upper Big Branch mine -- a failure first and foremost of management, but also a failure of oversight and a failure of laws so riddled with loopholes that they allow unsafe conditions to continue.” He pledged to hold accountable “safety violators LIKE MASSEY [that] have still been able to find ways to put their bottom line before the safety of their workers -- filing endless appeals instead of paying fines and fixing safety problems.” Noting that for a long time the mine safety agency was stacked with former mine executives and industry players, i.e. cronies of Republican Party donor and Massey CEO Don Blankenship, President Obama added, the agency “is now run, I’m proud to say, by former miners and health safety experts like Joe Main and Kevin Stricklin.”

The President concluded: “we all understand that underground coal mining is, by its very nature, dangerous. Every miner and every mining family understands this. But we know what can cause mine explosions, and we know how to prevent them. I REFUSE TO ACCEPT ANY NUMBER OF MINER DEATHS AS SIMPLY A COST OF BUSINESS.”

YES! Thank you, Mr. President, for listening to the voices clamoring for JUSTICE for coal miners from predator criminal mining CEOs like Don Blankenship. HIS cost of staying employed, let alone staying out of jail, has just gone up exponentially.