Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Should Investigation Be Public?

Ken Ward Jr., who writes the 'Coal Tattoo' blog for West Virginia's Charleston Gazette, argued on Monday that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration should break from its long history of conducting secret hearings when it probes last week's deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine.

[As of now, the hearings] won't be open to the public ... Almost certainly, the investigative interviews will occur behind closed doors. Members of the press and the public will be shut out from this terribly important government task. Despite the efforts of the Salt Lake Tribune, which has sued unsuccessfully in federal court previously to try to open such proceedings, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has staunchly insisted on secrecy in these proceedings.

Why not Web cast the interviews? Why not quickly make transcripts available publicly on the Internet. And why not hold periodic press briefings where detailed information about what has been found so far is made public?

All of the secrecy might make sense, if MSHA and state officials didn't almost always allow coal company lawyers to sit in on the interviews. [...] One way around that is for MSHA to invoke its authority under federal law to conduct the investigation through a public hearing. In addition to cutting out this issue with the lawyers -- and having the positive benefit of being open and transparent -- this route has the advantage of giving MSHA something it doesn't otherwise have: Subpoena power to get documents and force witnesses to come and testify (or at least show up and take the 5th).

The open government group Sunlight Foundation echoes Ward's view. "This is one instance where transparency would create the kind of accountability we expect," Sunlight's Paul Blumenthal writes. "We are used to seeing executives hauled before congressional committees to testify about violations, corporate practices or harmful products and getting scolded by a series of lawmakers who seem more interested in posturing for cameras or appealing to their district than to actually investigating an issue. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigators and regulators don't need to get reelected, so I sincerely doubt there would be any need to engage in the type of political gesticulating that goes on in congressional committees."

Comments

[retromega]

09:47 PM on 04/17/2010

I know that Grand Jury deliberations are supposed to be secret, even though the results are constantly released to bolster on side or the other! If it goes beyond this all proceedings are supposed to be a matter of public record. This is supposed to protect those unjustly accused although it seems more oftem than not to protect those who have paved their road to "innocent" with money, bribes, threats, and corrupt political promises!

The questions to be answered here is which category listed above resulted in the deaths of these men?, who laid the ground work for their deaths, and why they were targeted for their "untimely demise" because it is more than obvious that these men were hung out to die!

Let me repeat: These men were hung out to die! Was it by the company pretending to look out for their safety in deferance to legal standards?; was it the inspectors who turned a pair of blind eyes to their plight, or worse were paid for their willfull malfeasance? was it the company's investors who were demanding a higher return on their [sic] money?; or are we to believe that a single sleeper terrorist mining coal to injure America was at fault here????

Which one do you think will be found at blame? The ones that make sense or the last option which makes no sense but lets everyone accused off the hook?

I'll take the last options! Any takers?????????

[meditateforfun]

04:33 PM on 04/13/2010

Just watch....if the Obama administration tries to take a hand in investigating Massey and Don Blankenship, the right wing will cry unfair "politics," primarily because Don Blankenship has been such a naysayer about Obama. If you don't know about this, watch the Youtube films of the "Friends of America" rally this past summer in WV, sponsored by Massey, featuring such enlightened folks as Hannity, Hank Jr., Ted Nugent and Don Blankenship in his American flag tee shirt and cap.

[amdezurik]

09:59 AM on 04/13/2010

*homicide* that is

[amdezurik]

09:59 AM on 04/13/2010

as a legal person this corporation and it's officers needs to be charged with negligent homice, multiple counts, at the very least and also RICO charges for conspiring to commit homicide via legislative pressure.

[RitaS]

11:37 PM on 04/12/2010

Secret my A** !!! It's about time the American People find out EXACTLY what these Companies are doing to the detriment of their employees....

[treetracker]

01:40 AM on 04/13/2010

I so agree. The public needs to be educated about what these corporations do to put their profits ahead of the safety of their employees. Mines, refineries (we just lost 5 here in WA to an explosion with the same MO --- citations they were appealing), chemical, drug, etc. If these were small companies, they would be shut down, but because they are huge corporations, they use the appeal process to delay and reduce their fines. It's time people understood it is not the government they should fear, but the corporations who are controlling many of those in government.

[4daphne]

01:41 AM on 04/13/2010

No way!!! we only protect the corporations. Just ask the supreme court. a little donation to a political war chest will make everything ok again!!! right boys!

[feuille0d0erable]

11:22 PM on 04/12/2010

"All animals are equal... but some (corporations) are more equal than others", to paraphrase Orwell.

[bascombe]

11:08 PM on 04/12/2010

DLC/DSCC/DCCC rule#1 - no corporation should ever be punished, nor should any CEO.

[CurtVile]

11:01 PM on 04/12/2010

i wonder if Obama thinks we need to be forward looking on this too. lets not look backward... lets look forward....to this kind of thing happening over and over again.

i plan on using the Obama defence if i ever get into legal trouble.

"your honor, sure i shot that guy....but that was like.....6 months ago! we need be forward looking. why are you gonna try to dredge up the past? seems awfully political to me.."

[Wallysmom]

11:43 PM on 04/12/2010

Try reading another news article here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/obama-msha-mine-safety-se_n_532665.html

Your talking out of your asshelmet....

[RCTech]

11:00 PM on 04/12/2010

I don't think I've ever seen a better example of corporate America in my entire life. Holding these investigations in private is complete bullsh*t.

[ReealOne]

10:14 PM on 04/12/2010

Don Blankenship has made MILLIONS off the work AND safety of the miners who works for him. When you have people who are BLANTANTLY ignorant as this "man", the ONLY way to get their attention is to hit them in the pocketbook. It does "WONDERS", where warnings of regulations and safety issues were blantantly ignored.

Now look at the results. The lost of 29 lives, that have bereaved countless family members and loved ones. His "millions" should go to the people who deserves it, the family members and loved one of these 29 miners.

Should the investigations be public? Absolutely - just as Don Blankenship's criminal trial must be! THIS is one of the main reasons why regulations MUST be restored. Without mandates, businesses would not even consider them - or they would have taken the lead to stop the damage NO REGULATIONS have done to this country - without being told.

[hellboundtrain]

10:11 PM on 04/12/2010

Twenty-nine lives were lost, with every miner risking their lives everyday to give us the the convenience of electricity at the flip of a switch. The miners, their families, and all consumers of the benefits of the product that they create, deserve to have every single word heard.

Don't bow to the cowardliness and bullying of the management/ownership group.

[sviolette]

10:05 PM on 04/12/2010

Why would anyone care about losing a few miners every few years? We lose 45,000 people every year due to a lack of healthcare insurance. What's a couple of miners in that scheme?

[kaptaintripps]

10:10 PM on 04/12/2010

Geezus. I hope this is sarcasm.

[anticapitalist1983]

09:58 PM on 04/12/2010

miners mine the coal, they should own and run the mines themselves.
as long as it's up to bosses, miners' lives will matter less than profits.
OCCUPY!
great video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYCJU4rbygo

what the headlines should say:
"capitalist kllls 29 miners in W. Virginia"
http://thetbf.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/safety-at-work/

fight back!

[kaptaintripps]

09:42 PM on 04/12/2010

...and do you know WHO emboldened Massey? Reagan! He broke the traffic controllers union. He broke the Teamsters. He broke the steel workers. And he broke up the mine unions. All of them union with protection of workers!

[wdw505]

04:36 AM on 04/13/2010

good for him

[kaptaintripps]

08:23 PM on 04/13/2010

Blood on all your hands.

[kaptaintripps]

09:35 PM on 04/12/2010

Gang, I saw the Posts today at work--but could not reply from work. Let me say my piece: I'm an old lady. I very well remember when miners tried desperately to unionize, and Massey-Energy threatened, fought (a young man was shot and killed), intimidated, and then finally brought in scabs to do the work while the miners were out of work for over a year! (Then Massey laughed about it--and still is--30 years later--about how they beat us, how they "showed us all.")

No ReThug Conservative better EVER say to me that the people who work there "...just choose that kind of life..." (kinda like they say--you''re outta work? We stopped your unemployment? Get a d@mned job, you lazy @$$). Kinda makes us wanna take them by the throat.

All of it enrages me. Do the hearings need to be public? You d@amn bet they do!