Sago Report Postponed; (get my judgement today)

Though it has not been officially released, the state report on the Sago mine explosion, leaked to the AP, cites lightning as the primary cause of the blast, generating a force five times what seals were able to withstand.

Unfortunately, this may lead some to believe that this relieves the non-union company, International Coal Group (ICG), of responsibility. Not so. Disasters will happen, especially those that are of the natural variety and very likely will be beyond our control. However, the way in which we respond to an event, or better still prepare for its eventuality is well within our control.

So how did ICG prepare and respond?

“Ken Ward, Jr., in a January 3, 2006 story in the Charleston Gazette, "Sago mine has history of roof falls", wrote that the most recent MSHA inspections, from early October to late December, resulted in 46 citations and three orders, 18 of which were “serious and substantial.” (S&S) Violations include failure to follow the approved roof control and mine ventilation plans and problems concerning emergency escapeways and required pre-shift safety examinations. From early July to late September, MSHA found 70 violations, 42 of which were S&S. MSHA found 52 violations from April to June, of which 31were S&S.

Ward explains, "These “S&S” violations are those that MSHA believes are likely to cause an accident that would seriously injure a miner."

Davitt McAteer, MSHA chief during the Clinton administration told Ward, "The numbers don’t sound good....[they are] sufficiently high that it should tip off management that there is something amiss here. For a small operation, that is a significant number of violations.” McAteer said the roof fall frequency “suggests that the roof is bad and that the support system is not meeting the needs of the roof.” [link]

Ken Ward, Jr., wrote in a January 15, 2006 story entitled Chaos marred critical early hours after blast, that the company did not call a specialized mine rescue crew until 8:04 a.m. — more than 90 minutes after the blast. The company notified the federal Mine safety and Health Administration at 8:30 a.m. The company said it started its calls at 7:40. MSHA records two calls at 8:10 to personnel who were out of town due to the holiday. MSHA arrived on site at approximately 10:30 a.m. The first rescue crew arrived ten minutes later.” [link]

ICG was not prepared and responded in a criminally slow way, possibly robbing the miners of their only reasonable chance for rescue. Then again, if the federal government had real, aggressive people in charge of MSHA instead of industry insiders this might have been prevented.

I can’t wait for the civil trials to start so that we the people can give these creeps at least a small measure of what they deserve.

Full release of the report is being delayed due to a request by victims' families for more information.

How to Lower the Gas Tax

“West Virginia motorists may be crossing the border to fill up their gas tanks next year. State tax commissioner Virgil Helton announced Wednesday that one of the state's motor fuel taxes will jump four and a half cents to eleven cents a gallon January first. That means motorists will be paying just shy of 50 cents per gallon in both state and federal taxes. The hike would make West Virginia eleventh in the nation for total gas taxes, up from 18th.” (Link)

It would be easy to whine about a higher gas tax (and it certainly is regressive, hurting the poor more than the better off) but what is a poor state to do?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Highway tolls – Those of you who live in areas other than south central WV may protest, but we’ve paid tolls for the WV turnpike since 1954, first to pay for the road itself, then to pay for its upkeep and for roads elsewhere in the state. It is a little unfair to expect southern West Virginias to pay $7.50 for a trip (and bear a larger burden of interstate upkeep) to Charleston and interstate travel to be free for all other destinations. I say reasonable tolls between Morgantown and Charleston, and between Huntington and Charleston could be used to lower the gas tax for everyone.
2. Tax major users – Since they do the most damage, have a road service charge added to owners of heavy commercial vehicles.

What are your ideas?

West Virginia is Calling (pick up)

It looks like WV will be getting a new advertising campaign to coinside with the release of “We Are Marshall.”

The campaign will be called “West Virginia is Calling” and will target markets in OH, WV, VA, NC, DC and MD.

Are we calling:

collect?
you out?
to say I love you?
me home? (yes)
birds?
pigs?
yo mama ugly?

This is begging for satire.