Free Republic

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has called into question the state’s authority to grant permission to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Co., to build several miles of tunnels for his high-speed Hyperloop transportation system below the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The State Highway Administration granted a conditional utility permit on Oct. 16 to allow The Boring Co. to begin building the tunnels, if the company supplies additional information about the project and it meets all necessary requirements. But the Hyperloop system “is not a utility under federal standards or SHA’s federally-approved utility accommodation policies,” Assistant Attorney General David Stamper...

Fatal Mine Collapse Covered 50 Acres ScienceDaily (Jun. 3, 2008) — New calculations show that the deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse -- which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake -- began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report on the tragedy. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than was thought shortly after the time of the Aug. 6, 2007, disaster that resulted in the deaths of six miners and, 10 days later, three rescuers. The seismologists'...

This map shows the part of the Crandall Canyon Mine that was being mined in August 2007, when a collapse occurred. A smaller collapse in March 2007 (red rectangle marked... Click here for more information. SALT LAKE CITY� New calculations show that the deadly Crandall Canyon mine collapse � which registered as a magnitude-3.9 earthquake � began near where miners were excavating coal and quickly grew to a 50-acre cave-in, University of Utah seismologists say in a report on the tragedy. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations estimated the size of the collapse is about four times larger than...

Rescuers trying to find six miners missing a week in a devastated coal mine failed to see any sign of them through a video camera lowered through a drill hole and will drill yet another hole in an attempt to locate the men, a federal official said Sunday. Poor lighting allowed the camera to only see about 15 feet into a void at the bottom of the drill hole, far less than the 100 feet it's capable of seeing, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Here’s a headline you aren’t likely to see: “Sago mine tragedy defies improved mine safety trend under the Bush administration.” Yet, the facts support it. Mining fatalities have dropped every year President Bush has been in the White House,

Since the Bush administration took office in 2001, it has been more lenient toward mining companies facing serious safety violations, issuing fewer and smaller major fines and collecting less than half of the money that violators owed, a Knight Ridder Newspapers investigation has found. Relaxed mine safety enforcement is widespread, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of federal records and interviews with former and current federal safety officials, even though deaths and injuries from mining accidents have hovered near record low levels in the past few years. David Gooch, president of Coal Operators and Associates in Pikeville, Ky., which has...

I hopped over to DU between plays of the FSU-PSU game and found this discussion of current events: raysr (1000+ posts) Tue Jan-03-06 10:12 PM Original message Why is it when ever Bush or his admin is under the gun there's some kind of disaster that gets all the news? (mining disaster). I am a firm believer that eveyone in the * admin is a murderer and that NOTHING is beyond them! Yes, it wouldn't take much to make me believe that Rove was behind the mining disaster. waiting for hope (553 posts) Tue Jan-03-06 10:16 PM Response to Original...

AP) The White House on Wednesday promised a full investigation of the West Virginia coal mine disaster that killed 12 people. Congressional Democrats called for hearings to look into both the safety record of the mining company and the Bush administration's policies on mine safety. "We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken," President Bush said. "We ask that the good Lord comfort them in their time of need." He praised West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin "for showing such compassion" during the crisis and thanked rescuers "who risked their lives to save those...

Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2006 10:00 p.m. EST President Bush Blamed for Mine Disaster Less than 24-hours after 12 of the 13 workers trapped by a West Virginia mine explosion were found dead, critics were already politicizing the disaster, with at least one mine safety expert blaming President Bush. "This mine should have been closed," former director of the National Mine Safety and Health Academy, Jack Spadaro, told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night. "There were too many serious [safety] violations and the record is very clear," he added. Asked why the allegedly unsafe mine continued to operate, Spadaro...

Of course the Left blames George W. Bush for the deaths this week of a dozen coal miners. Tom Blumer at BizzyBlog cites the New York Times edit page's usual Bush-bashing innuendo: ...the Bush administration’s cramming of important posts in the Department of the Interior with biased operatives from the coal, oil and gas industry is not reassuring about general safety in the mines. Steven Griles, a mining lobbyist before being appointed deputy secretary of the interior, devoted four years to rolling back mine regulations and then went back to lobbying for the industry. Blumer then points out what the...

WASHINGTON Democrats called for congressional hearings into mine safety and regulation enforcement after an explosion and collapse in West Virginia killed 12 miners and left another critically injured. -Snip- Under Bush, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has worked more closely with mine owners than under previous presidents, according to union officials. The government has formed formal "partnerships" between companies and agency officials and is shying away from imposing heavy fines and sanctions, said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America. Workers at Sago Mine do not belong to a union. "They've gone from being an...

Bush called more lenient on those facing serious safety violations WASHINGTON - Since the Bush administration took office in 2001, it has been more lenient toward mining companies facing serious safety violations, issuing fewer and smaller major fines and collecting less than half of the money that violators owed, a Knight Ridder Newspapers investigation has found. At one point last year, the Mine Safety and Health Administration fined a coal company a scant $440 for a "significant and substantial" violation that ended in the death of a Kentucky man. The firm, International Coal Group Inc., is the same company that...

Coal mine production reached the highest levels in history in recent years. In 2004 coal mining fatalities were near the lowest level in history with 28. Even with the recent high production, MSHA’s accident reduction efforts helped to keep the annual fatality totals nearly 50% lower in recent years compared with totals recorded in the early 1990s. 1. Clinton’s last year in office, 2000, there were 48 deaths in coal mines. In 2004, there were 28 2. The injury rate in 2000 was 6.64, in 2004 it was 5.00 3. Citations for safety violations in 2000: 58,285; Citations for violations...