Nearly two years after Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, the deadliest mine accident in nearly 40 years, the West Virginia House of Delegates has just passed a mine safety reform bill that should, in theory, strengthen some of the lax laws that made the tragedy possible. Through the legislative process, the bill, already mild to begin with, has been further weakened to appease coal industry lobbyists and legislators who fear them.

Part of the bill attempts to raise the maximum fine that can be levied against mine operators who violate safety laws. While coal state legislators kowtowing to the industry is nothing new, the Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. uncovered a statistic that highlights the state’s shocking disregard for the safety of miners. Under West Virginia law, the maximum fine for a safety violation that results in the death of a coal miner is one-tenth of the maximum fine for violating West Virginia University’s trademark:

Better yet — why should someone face more serious punishment if they use the WVU logo without permission (see here and here) than if they kill a coal miners? That’s right, WVU trademark violators? Up to 10 years in jail and a $100,000 fine. Mine safety criminals? Up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The new mine safety bill makes an attempt to raise both civil and criminal penalties for mine safety violations, but even the higher fines would be incredibly weak. The maximum civil fine for most safety violations would rise from $3,000 to $5,000 — weakened from $10,000 in the original draft of the bill — falling woefully short of the $70,000 maximum fine under federal law. And while it seeks to impose new criminal penalties on violations resulting in deaths, Ward couldn’t find a single example of county prosecutors bringing criminal charges under the existing statutes.

Last week, the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training released its report on the Upper Big Branch mine disaster last week, and though its tone was “tepid” compared to other reports, it became the fourth such investigation to find that lax mine safety laws and regulations were responsible for the explosion that killed 29 miners. After the disaster, West Virginia politicians and coal industry big-wigs vowed to never let such a disaster happen again.

If recent efforts to enhance mine safety on both the state and federal levels is any indication, though, the promise from the coal industry, industry lobbyists, and coal state legislators that such a disaster will never happen again is just another example of empty rhetoric.

Ken Ward reports on the  West Virginia gubernatorial “debate” last month  between Tweedledum and Tweedledee:

Q:  “Do you believe man’s actions are causing the world to warm?”

Maloney (R): “We’re in a cooling cycle.”

Tamblin (Democratic): “Once again, there are differences of opinion as to whether we’re in global warming now.”

This is, sadly, only a slight caricature of where the national debate seems headed, given the fecklessness of the entire Obama administration on the issue.

For the record, the 2007 Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded its review of scientific literature and relevant observations:

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.

The key word is “unequivocal,” which is to say, “leaving no doubt.”  Remember, every word in this sentence was signed off on by every single member government, including the Bush Administration (and Saudi Arabia).

The scientific evidence has become even stronger in recent years — see, for instance, Met Office finds “evidence for man-made warming has grown even stronger in the last year.” And so the traditionally conservative and staid U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the equivalent of our scientific Supreme Court, concluded its recent review of climate science saying that it is a scientific “settled fact” that the Earth is warming.

Here’s the backstory from Ken Ward on the WV race:

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CNN’s Soledad O’Brien took a major look at mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia, bringing national media attention to the “rape of Appalachia.” Unfortunately, her “powerful documentary on mountaintop removal and the struggle to save Blair Mountain from obliteration” is told primarily through “eyes and experiences of seemingly embattled strip miners who are afraid of losing their jobs,” ignoring “the already displaced coal mining communities afraid of losing their lives,” writes Jeff Biggers.

The documentary is presented in a “jobs vs environment” frame that is “devoid of any actual analysis of whether that frame is appropriate,” writes Appalachian Voices’ Matt Wasson. In reality, coal jobs disappear once mountaintop removal is instituted, since it requires fewer miners than traditional mining practices. Furthermore, the rise in mountaintop removal has done nothing to disrupt the long-run trend of declining production from the Appalachians.

Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. is sympathetic to the “pretty balanced overview,” but believes the documentary failed by presenting coal as “the only possible future” for West Virginia’s children:

The problem was most simple. CNN interviewed Art Kirkendoll, who has been a county commissioner in Logan County for 30 years. They let him go on about what God does or doesn’t want done with West Virginia’s mountains.

But they didn’t bother to ask him about the fact that Logan County’s poverty rate is twice the national average, or why the college graduation rate there is one-third of the national average … They didn’t bother to ask him why kids in Logan County don’t deserve more than one option in life.

“It’s not just about ‘how a mountain looks,’” Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard critiques O’Brien. “Even though the segment falls short of what I hoped for, I guess I am glad to see MTR getting any coverage on cable television. I just wish they’d done a better job of it.”