Retired coal miner Stanley “Goose” Stewart questions whether it’s safe for anyone to work in the industry right now.
The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has been targeting federal agencies for spending cuts. That includes terminating leases for three dozen offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for enforcing mine safety laws.
The proposals for MSHA are “idiotic,” Stewart said, and would give coal companies “the green light to do as they please.”
Safety laws and their enforcement played a significant role before and after the Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia blew up 15 years ago Saturday, killing 29 of Stewart’s co-workers.
Stewart was there that day but soon stepped away for good, focusing on his love for hunting, fishing and tending to his chickens and his garden when the weather warms.
Coal mining in West Virginia, meanwhile, spent the ensuing years in a political fight that Republicans largely won. As a 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton was slammed for saying that her plans to shift away from carbon-based fuels like coal would put miners out of business. Trump vowed to save the industry, and while mining jobs have not made a comeback, coal states like West Virginia have become reliable Republican strongholds.
Advocates for the mining industry argue that state government is up to the task of keeping mines safe, although some lawmakers in West Virginia’s Republican majority have used the existence of federal inspectors as justification for curtailing the state inspectors’ enforcement power. They also point to the dwindling number of mining fatalities — and mines in general.
Republican Tom Clark, a West Virginia state lawmaker and a former MSHA inspector and supervisor who worked in one West Virginia office slated for closure, said he expected it to shutter years ago. Eight MSHA employees currently work in the Summersville office, Clark said, less than a third of the workforce that existed there about 10 years ago.
Clark said he doesn’t have any concerns for miners, as long as those inspectors are transferred to other coalfield-based offices. Clark, who worked on MSHA’s Upper Big Branch investigation, said he supports the Trump administration’s efforts to streamline government and stimulate the economy.
