Speaking at the White House this morning, President Obama took Massey Energy to task over last week’s deadly mining explosion in southern West Virginia, saying that the tragedy was “a failure first and foremost of management.”
“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,” Obama said.
Seems that the folks at Massey didn’t appreciate the scrutiny much. A few hours later the company responded with a statement calling the president’s characterization “regrettable.”
“We fear that the President has been misinformed about our record and the mining industry in general,” the statement reads.
The company then pushes the blame for the enormous backlog of violation appeals — around 16,600 and growing — on the administration for failing to keep up with the increasing volume.
There has been criticism regarding the backlog of violations that have been appealed. There have been violations at Upper Big Branch that the Company does not agree with and a number of those violations have been appealed. The percentage of violations appealed at UBB and Massey is similar to that for the industry as a whole.
Unmentioned is how — since 2006, when Congress hiked the penalties for safety violations — the industry (Massey included) has responded by contesting more and more violations in order to delay the fines and prevent regulators from establishing the “pattern of violations” that might lead officials to shutter unsafe mines. Testifying before House lawmakers in February, Joe Main, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, revealed the startling trend:
- In 2005, 7,200 citations were contested.
- In 2006, 10,036 citations were contested.
- In 2007, 19,546 citations were contested.
- In 2008, 46,792 citations were contested.
- And in 2009, 46,526 citations were contested.
Put another way, in 2005, mine operators appealed 6 percent of all safety citations. In 2009, the figure had jumped to 27 percent.
“We believe some operators contesting [significant and substantial] violations may be doing so because it delays the finding of a pattern, adding to the backlog and delaying MSHA from using this enhanced enforcement tool at their mines,” Main told the lawmakers. “As a result, there are operations that might be on a potential pattern of violations, but the backlog has prevented their cases from becoming final orders.”
Turns out, the Upper Big Branch was one of those operations he was referring to.