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I’m sickened, as I’m sure you are, by the tragic death of those twelve
coal miners in West Virginia.
And I can only imagine how it felt to be on that sadistic rollercoaster of
emotions that the company put people on as a result of bad PR.
But this mine disaster is an indictment not just of a company but of
a philosophy—the philosophy of deregulation, which Bush and the Republican
Party and libertarians have been promoting at every turn.
This is what happens when you deregulate industry.
People die.
This is what happens when you let companies act as their own watchdogs.
People die.
This is what happens when the penalties for safety violations amount
to the gentlest of pats on the wrist.
People die.
“The Mine Safety and Health administration issued a total of 208 citations
for alleged violations at the site last year,” reports The
Boston Globe.
“Most of the citations were issued before the current owners took over
the mine in November, but International Coal Group Inc. was cited by the federal
government three times in five days in December for allowing flammable coal
dust to collect in a work area.”
Still, the Bush Administration didn’t shut the mine down.
And for all of the citations last year, the mine owners had to pay a total
of only $24,000, the Globe reports. “Scores of penalties” were issued
“for the minimum of $60.”
Rather than regulate the coal companies, the Bush Administration has entered
into what it calls “partnerships” with the coal companies, the United
Mine Workers told the Globe, and the Administration “is shying away from
imposing heavy fines and sanctions.”
The Bush Administration also gave high-ranking jobs in the Mine Safety and
Health Administration to former industry officials, and it yanked proposals for tightening regulations.
“Among the regulatory proposals no longer being worked on, some of them
spanning years and administrations, are those addressing safety issues with
self-rescue respiratory devices for miners” as well as “the shortage
of mine rescue teams,” The
Washington Post reported on November 16, 2004, in an article entitled “Mining
Safety Rules Got the Shaft, Workers Union Says.”
It should not take a disaster like the one in West Virginia to see the fatal
effects of the policy and philosophy of deregulation.
More people will be getting the shaft if we don’t reverse this policy
and renounce this philosophy.
