Crandall Canyon disaster: Not a word from Labor secretary

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8806779

House panel chairman calls Chao missing in action on worker safety
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 04/04/2008 03:45:22 AM MDT

WASHINGTON - Seven months since the Crandall Canyon mine disaster and two damning investigative reports later, the head of the federal department overseeing the Mine Safety and Health Administration isn't talking.

Labor Department Secretary Elaine Chao hasn't commented publicly about the Utah disaster - or criticisms of MSHA's actions before and during the disaster - since she set up an independent panel in August to investigate the agency.

Just this week, the Labor Department's independent Inspector General released an audit deeming MSHA "negligent" regarding the Crandall Canyon disaster and its role in protecting miners nationwide. It also said MSHA could not prove it hadn't been unduly influenced by the mine's owner, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp.


Elaine Chao (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/The Associated Press)

An earlier Senate probe said the agency ignored ample warnings that the mining plan for Crandall Canyon was flawed and unnecessarily risky, enough to warrant a criminal investigation.

Has Chao read the reports? Held meetings or talked with MSHA boss Richard Stickler? Is she concerned with the flaws ticked off in those reports? Does she plan to change any of the leadership of the agency, or leave those under fire as is? Those questions, for now, remain unanswered.

FULL story at link.