Voices from coal country say closures of MSHA offices will endanger mine safety

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (news agencies) — 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.

“It’s going to take time and there’s going to be some pain for all the American people, I think,” he said. “But if we can hang in there and battle through, we all may be better off. I hope so.”

Clark said the federal government should not cut down on inspectors and said black lung benefits need to be funded. He said the government should use money they’re saving to make sure those programs have what they need.

“Funding shouldn’t be a consideration for keeping people healthy,” he said. “It really shouldn’t.”

But Stewart, the former miner, said the MSHA office closures will impact safety.

“I wouldn’t recommend anybody get in the mining industry right now because of what’s going on with Trump and Musk,” he said.

Stewart said he’s never supported Trump and never would, but he struggles to explain the loyalty of many West Virginians, including coal miners, to the president. He said Trump had never done anything to help them.

“I can’t wrap my brain around why they can’t see what a con man he is. I just hope someday they’ll wake up. It may already be too late.”

Congress created MSHA within the Department of Labor in 1978, in part because state inspectors were seen as too close to the industry to force coal companies to take the sometimes costly steps necessary to protect miners. MSHA is required to inspect each underground mine quarterly and each surface mine twice a year.

MSHA inspectors are supposed to check every working section of a mine. They examine electrical and ventilation systems that protect miners from deadly black lung disease, inspect impoundment dams and new roof bolts, and make sure mining equipment is safe, said Jack Spadaro, a longtime mine safety investigator and environmental specialist who worked for MSHA.

Mining fatalities over the past four decades have dropped significantly, in large part because of the dramatic decline in coal production. But the proposed DOGE cuts would require MSHA inspectors to travel farther to get to a mine, and Spadaro said that could lead to less thorough inspections.

“It’s a stupid proposal made by stupid people who obviously have no concept or no knowledge about mine safety,” Spadaro said.