Ex-coal executive to lead nation's top mine safety agency

[Judi Lynn]

Updated 7:52 pm, Saturday, September 2, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump has chosen as the nation's top mine safety official the former CEO of a coal company that repeatedly clashed with federal regulators when the Obama administration tried to boost industry-wide enforcement following the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Trump nominated former Rhino Resources executive David G. Zatezalo as assistant secretary of labor for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. The announcement came at the start of the 3-day Labor Day weekend.

Zatezalo, of Wheeling, West Virginia, retired in late 2014 as chairman of Rhino after serving in several top posts. He joined the Lexington, Kentucky-based company in 2007.

Mining deaths are on the rise nationally after dropping for several years following the deaths of 29 miners in the April 2010 explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.

http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Ex-coal-executive-to-lead-nation-s-top-mine-12169778.php

(Short article, no more at link.)

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Trump nominates former coal exec to run MSHA
Ken Ward Jr. , Staff Writer
September 2, 2017



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In 2010 and 2011, Zatezalo was a top executive with Rhino when the company had a series of run-ins with MSHA over safety and health conditions at mines in West Virginia and Kentucky during a period when then-MSHA chief Joe Main was ramping up agency enforcement following the Upper Branch disaster.

At the Rhino Eastern Eagle No. 1 Mine near Bolt in Raleigh County, MSHA in November issued a “pattern of violations” warning letter that cited repeated violations and cautioned the agency was preparing tougher enforcement actions. The pattern of violations program was a long-unused MSHA tool for cracking down on repeat violators of safety and health standards, and Main, a former UMW safety director, was trying to begin using it to avoid a repeat of what happened at Upper Big Branch.

After the 2010 warning letter, Rhino improved and MSHA backed off. But the company’s safety performance quickly deteriorated again, prompting a second pattern of violations letter in August 2011.

Between those two warning letters, crew leader Joseph Cassell was killed at the Eagle No. 1 Mine when rock and coal from a portion of a mine wall collapsed onto him in June 2011. MSHA investigators concluded that Rhino’s efforts to control the mine walls with timbers and conventional bolts were inadequate, something that conditions at the mine had “put the operator on notice” about. Rhino was cited and paid $44,500 in fines to MSHA, records show.

More:
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20170902/trump-nominates-former-coal-exec-to-run-msha

[Turbineguy]

1. It's a shame Ted Bundy is dead.

Trump could have put him in charge of Women's Rights.