Kentucky House attempting to roll back mining safety to save a few bucks

[butters]

The bill would cut in half the number of mine emergency technicians required to work when a shift has 15 or fewer miners. Two METs are currently required per shift, but the bill would reduce it to one.

In a state once known as a coal producing powerhouse, supporters said the measure is needed to help keep the smallest mining operations in business amid the industry's downturn. The bill's critics warned it would roll back an important safeguard enacted years ago following a Kentucky mining fatality.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/k...1&cvid=ec5b59e37cd340efec7ed193bc0de95c&ei=46

 

[RoryN]

Maybe they need that $$ for upgrades to the Ark Encounter?

Noah & the dinosaurs would be faster with Google Fiber.

 

[butters]

and if there is an incident underground, with multiple injuries, the miners stand a much better chance with 2 trained personnel. it potentially means a greatly reduced fatality rate with 2... and if it happened with 1 and people died through lack of medical attention in a fast enough time span, i can hear the fuckers who want this shoved through saying "a terrible tragedy... no-one could have foreseen this... our thoughts are with the families and we ask you to join us in prayer"

 

[Bn2f]

It almost always bothersome/irritating/depressing reading any news relating to miners and their families in the Eaatern Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania corridor. This hard, labor intensive job is about as close to slavery as we can get in a modern-day society. Yet this mostly white male dominated profession votes staunchly Republican. They would rather suffer life threatening deregulations and be lied to…

Trump promised to bring back coal in Appalachia. Here's why that didn't happen.​

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news...bring-back-coal-appalachia-has-he/5866420002/


… than be told the hard truth from a Democrat.

In the heart of coal country, state officials bet on renewable energy​

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/18/pos...y-bets-on-renewable-energy-metals-mining.html

West Virginia training program restores hope for jobless coal miners​

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/west-virginia-training-program-jobless-coal-miners-appalachia/

 

[MajorRewrite]

It almost always bothersome/irritating/depressing reading any news relating to miners and their families in the Eaatern Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania corridor. This hard, labor intensive job is about as close to slavery as we can get in a modern-day society. Yet this mostly white male dominated profession votes staunchly Republican. They would rather suffer life threatening deregulations and be lied to…

… than be told the hard truth from a Democrat.

Several generations of the ambitious people from “coal country” fled that region. The people left behind rely heavily on welfare to survive.

I’ve traveled quite a bit in the region and their complete failure to be able to build any kind of economy is obvious and depressing.

I wonder if the humiliation of being dependent on handouts from the government is what turned them into nationalist zealots?

 

[YDB95]

I wonder if the humiliation of being dependent on handouts from the government is what turned them into nationalist zealots?

It used to be widely recognized that falling on hard times was a fact of life and there was no shame in being helped through those times. What changed was that the right injected race into the equation, implying that most if not all welfare recipients were...you know the word. You can read about it in Ian Haney Lopez, Dog Whistle Politics, which I highly recommend.

Also, much of Appalachia is ancestrally Republican, going back to the Civil War (indeed, that's why the state of West Virginia exists in the first place). Old habits die hard.

 

[Lazaran]

It almost always bothersome/irritating/depressing reading any news relating to miners and their families in the Eaatern Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania corridor. This hard, labor intensive job is about as close to slavery as we can get in a modern-day society. Yet this mostly white male dominated profession votes staunchly Republican. They would rather suffer life threatening deregulations and be lied to…

Trump promised to bring back coal in Appalachia. Here's why that didn't happen.​

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news...bring-back-coal-appalachia-has-he/5866420002/


… than be told the hard truth from a Democrat.

In the heart of coal country, state officials bet on renewable energy​

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/18/pos...y-bets-on-renewable-energy-metals-mining.html

West Virginia training program restores hope for jobless coal miners​

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/west-virginia-training-program-jobless-coal-miners-appalachia/

The "republican" party has been playing those rubes like a fiddle (banjo?) for decades, and those rubes have been willingly dancing to their tune.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Also, much of Appalachia is ancestrally Republican, going back to the Civil War (indeed, that's why the state of West Virginia exists in the first place). Old habits die hard.

The coalfields certainly have an interesting history.

Economically, the Tennessee Valley portion of Appalachia was just as as poor (maybe more so) but didn’t have coal. The federal government invested heavily through the TVA ( the US’ first and largest regional development agency) and now that region is much more prosperous than the coal region (Knoxville, Chattanooga, etc are booming).

From Wikipedia:

Even by Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in dire economic straits in 1933. Thirty percent of the population was affected by malaria. The average income in the rural areas was $639 per year (equivalent to $11,529 in 2024),[34] with some families surviving on as little as $100 per year (equivalent to $1,804 in 2022).

Yikes. The depth of poverty was stunning. Changing that was a huge success for the New Deal policy of FDR.

 

[Bn2f]

Economically, the Tennessee Valley portion of Appalachia was just as as poor (maybe more so) but didn’t have coal. The federal government invested heavily through the TVA.

Yikes. The depth of poverty was stunning. Changing that was a huge success for the New Deal policy of FDR.

Ronald Reagan, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”