Thursday, April 15, 2010

In wake of disaster, Obama orders crackdown on coal mines with patterns of violations

"President Barack Obama directed federal mine health and safety officials on Thursday to crack down on coal mines with a pattern of serious safety violations and urged Congress to fix safety laws that are "riddled with loopholes'," Halimah Abdullah reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader and McClatchy Newspapers.

"Obama said the safety record at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine was 'troubling,' and called for a broad review of government enforcement programs to address an industry where he said 'far too many mines aren't doing enough to protect their workers' safety'," Ken Ward Jr. reports for The Charleston Gazette.

"Obama spoke minutes after a rare Oval Office meeting on mine safety with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, federal Mine Safety and Health Administration chief Joseph Main and MSHA’s administrator for coal-mine safety and health, Kevin Stricklin," reports James R. Carroll, Washington correspondent for The Courier-Journal of Louisville. “Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers union, applauded Obama’s moves, saying it was 'an unprecedented public stance for an American president to take, and one that is good news for all coal miners in the United States'.” (Read more)

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