Mine Safety

Mining is a dangerous business. In the latest mine disaster, though, as in so many previously, it seems that the mine where the tragedy happened had a pattern of safety violations so frequent and so severe that it can hardly be doubted that management had made the deliberate choice to violate the law and reasonable regard for safety. Accidents and fines, for them, were a cost of doing business. This choice is only likely to be made when the penalties for violation are far too slight.

My modest suggestion: in the event of serious accident where gross negligence and violation of the law occurs, summarily execute the CEO and other complicit members of senior management. Execution of a few of the Don Blankenships of the world might get the attention of other senior executives in a way that fines rarely do.

I have to admit though, that a Fox News interviewer (!!) came up with a better idea. When inspectors find a serious safety violation, empower inspectors to close the mine and keep all the miners on the company's clock until the violation is fixed. This gives all concerned a motive to do the right thing.

UPDATE: After reading some more background from Devilstower at Daily Kos, let me reiterate my first suggestion. A few excerpts:

The CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship ... donates huge amounts to conservative causes, has funded a good chunk of the Tea Party movement in West Virginia, famously spent over $3 million to get a friendly judge elected to the state Supreme Court, and donated another $3 million in an attempt to fund a Republican takeover of the state legislature. Blankenship regularly engages in calling Democratic leaders "the crazies" and has said that any move to regulate pollution is the first step toward communism. Grist named Blankenship the "scariest polluter" in the country.

Now that Blankenship's disregard for safety has cost the lives of 29 men, what should we expect?

Not much. After all, this isn't the first time. In 2006, two West Virginia miners died in a fire at Massey's Alma Number 1 Mine when fire fighting equipment turned out to be non-functional. The company paid out a record $4.2 million in fines, but still turned a record profit. Blankenship personally pocketed an extra $14 million in stock options that year -- not exactly an incentive to change.

Read the Devilstower story though - it's a better piece of advocacy journalism than you are likely to see.

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