Digging into coal safety

The federal report on last year’s West Virginia coal-mine explosion that killed 29 miners describes company managers so consumed by greed that they created a second set of books to hide safety problems, intimidated employees into staying silent about on-the-job hazards and called ahead to sections of the mine where inspectors were headed so that dangerous conditions could be hurriedly hidden.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration trumpeted its record-breaking, $209-million settlement this week with Alpha Natural Resources, the company that bought the Upper Big Branch mine from Massey Energy Co. after the accident. That’s a good start, but nowhere near enough to augur a new era in coal mining, in which companies are held to account for putting profit ahead of their miners’ lives and limbs. Less than a quarter of the settlement money represents penalties for gross indifference to mining safety -- not enough to transform industry practices.

The Justice Department can still pursue possible criminal charges against the officials at Massey Energy who allegedly broke laws to further and conceal their dangerous practices. It should do so energetically.

In addition, the government needs to put in place a regulatory and oversight system that seeks to prevent mining tragedies rather than pursuing justice after they occur. The agency’s report doesn’t address ongoing, systemic problems with mine inspection and accountability. To that end, an independent panel should be established to examine whether the mine safety agency has the authority, and the will, it needs to crack down on bad-citizen mining firms.

To be sure, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration increased the frequency and severity of fines after the 2006 Sago mine explosion, also in West Virginia, that killed 12 miners. But mining companies countered by filing countless appeals, which, under the current system, often drag on for years. Before the Upper Big Branch disaster, Massey Energy had racked up hundreds of violations and $1.77 million in fines -- of which it had paid about $365,000. It will take congressional action to stop this practice of filing appeals to delay paying fines.

A separate report on the explosion by the United Mine Workers alleges even deeper problems: supervisors in the mine safety agency who overruled their own inspectors or urged them to slow down when they called for halting operations or stepping up oversight at Upper Big Branch. These accusations -- indicating that agency supervisors may have grown too cozy with those they were supposed to police -- deserve a full inquiry. The agency cannot properly investigate allegations of its own failures.