Libby Lindsay spent 21 years old underground as a worker in Bethlehem in West Virginia. She saw many safety improvements over the years, and she always felt grateful because she could call the local safety and health management office whenever she wondered whether a rule is followed. She joined the safety committees launched by the local separation of United Mining Workers, which cooperated with the Agency for coal companies. I understood the price paid for the regulations I imposed. “Each blood law has written,” she said. “It exists because someone was injured or killed.”
However, she and others who work in the nation mines are concerned with President Trump about to limit the agency’s local arrival. As his administration Targets For closing and selling, 35 of its offices are listed on the list. fifteen In the coal fields in ApalashianWith seven in the eastern state of Kentucky alone and the others focused in southern Virginia and southeast of Pennsylvania. Among the remaining twenty offices, many in the West, in remote corners of Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado. Miners’ advocates are concerned that this closure can reduce the ability of the agency that has improved the safety of mining over the past fifty years or so and can play a vital role as the Trump administration promotes fossil fuel like coal. Carbon removal Efforts increase the need for lithium and other minerals.
Since its establishment in 1977, the agency has worked under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor to reduce the risks of what was always one of the most dangerous functions of the world. Before Congress created the agency, known as MSHA, hundreds of mines died every year, in explosions, tunnel collapse, and equipment treatment. (The number was much higher during the 1940s, often reaches thousands.) Agency data. Even after calculating the steady decline of coal, this number, although it is still tragic, reflects great steps in safety.
“The coal mining is a difficult work. It is a very competitive work.” It is our duty to make sure that no one can do it. “
Trump’s choice of the leadership of MSHA and Wayne Palmer, who is awaiting confirmation, was previously the vice president of the Basic Mineral Association, a commercial association representing extraction companies. The Ministry of Labor refused to comment on the proposed termination. The representative of the American Public Services Department, which runs the federal offices, told Grist that any sites being considered in the closure have been perceived, and some rental fines may be canceled or not issued at all.
a lot Coal mines underground in the country – The most dangerous type – located in Apalashia. MSHA historically put its field offices in mining societies. Although the number of coal mines has Decrease Since 2008, tens of thousands of miners are still working in coal fields. Many of them still venture under the ground.
The number of dwindling deaths comes even with the affliction of MSHA with employment and continuous financing employees, with the Federal Office of the Inspector General repeatedly and repeatedly warning The decline agency is under its annual inspection targets. It also recommended taking more repeated samples to ensure the protection of workers mines from Toxic charcoal and silica dust. After decades of workFederal organizers have finally tightened the rules of exposure to silica, but miners and their preachers worry very little about employment, and it may hinder a very few enforcement inspections.
“There will be fewer inspections, which means that operators who do not follow the rules will escape from not following the rules longer than they might be,” said Chelsea Barnes, director of government and strategic affairs in the non -profit sounds of Ablashian. The organization worked with members of the union and preachers for those with black lung disease to pressure the boundaries of the most striking silica.
Last month, the United Mining Workers Association condemned the closure of the proposed office. As the demand for coal continues to decrease, it worries that companies can shorten pennies to increase profits to the maximum – or avoid bankruptcy. “The companies are completely dependent on the price of coal,” said Phil Smith, CEO of Federation President Cecil Roberts. “[If] It is bad enough, as they think, “Well, we can cut an angle here. We can choose a penny there.”
The Biden administration made an effort to employees at the agency. In the accumulated days of Biden State, Chris Williamson, who led the agency at the time, told Grist that he was “very proud to rebuild our team” because “you cannot go out and impose a silica standard or impose other things if you do not have people in their place.” The Federation is concerned that the Trump administration, which followed the demobilization of workers throughout the government, will target MSHA, as many Biden employees remain undergone employees. Despite the attempts of the previous administration to support the agency, it is still the case Missed inspection Because of the lack of employees.
Anyone who has not completed the transition to larger offices will have to be completed if Trump plays a local settlement means, which puts them more than the mines they keep in the tab. In addition to examining underground mines At least a quarter annually The surface mines are semi -annual, inspectors make more common checks for operations where toxic gases are located. They are also Respond For complaints. The work carried out by people in offices is likely to be uniformous to the East Kentucky state in Lexington, Kentucky or Wise County, Virginia, which is 200 miles.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images
Field offices have been unified before, and mining experts admitted that there may be time and place for such things, but it is not customary to close many without legal procedures. In early March, the Parliamentary Committee for Education and Manpower Give a letter To Vince Micone, Acting Minister of Labor, and request documents and information about closing and expressing anxiety that up to 90 mine examination offers have been canceled. Their mission specifically indicates the history of the agency in the lack of employees that led to disasters such as The top of the upper branch Mine explosion, which killed 29 people in 2010, is the worst mining accident in the country in four decades.
One of the lessons of the Big Branch Alawite mine disaster, according to the internal investigation of MSH Methane The explosions in the months that led to the massive explosion that killed 29 miners fifteen years ago in April. letterWhich was signed by Democratic actors Bobby Scott from Virginia and Ilhan Omar from Minnesota.
The effect of potential cuts extends beyond coal, in mines that will extract lithium and other minerals needed for clean energy and other industries. As of last year, the nation Nearly 256,000 mineral and non -mineral mines workers work Those who pull copper, zinc and other things from the ground. “It is an important agency, regardless of how our energy is produced,” said Chelsea Barnes, from the voices of Ablashian.
After spending a lot of time in the mines, Lindsay is concerned about the direction that the Trump administration is heading, even in the role of legislators in states like Virginia Western and Kentucky In recent years, I tried to review the regulations. “This will be the future of MSHA,” she said. “They will only be named. Miners will die. No one but their families will take care of.”
