Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2007

SUPPLEMENTAL MINE IMPROVEMENT AND NEW EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - January 16, 2008)

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Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for yielding.

In the spring of 2007 at the Crandall Canyon Mine, retreat mining began, and when they started the retreat mining on the north side of the mountain, there were indications that there could be trouble. There were literally noises, sounds, that say there could be trouble. So they stopped.

In June of 2007, the company conducting that mining went to the mine safety regulators, the Federal Government, and said we want to now do on the south side of the mountain what we stopped doing on the north side of the mountain. In just over a week, 9 days as I recall, the Federal regulators said go ahead and do it. How much care could they have taken in that analysis in that short period of time? Tragically, in August of 2007, nine people lost their lives.

Here's what this bill would change. It would say that the next time a mining company submits a retreat mining plan, they've got to have a computer model of what might happen when they start. They've got to send people from the mine safety agency to the mine to watch that it's being done the right way, and they've got to look at every possible technology that could be used to protect and save people's lives.

Tonight, nine families have an empty chair at the dinner table because of the tragedy that occurred at Crandall Canyon. I can't assure any of those people that we would avoid a future tragedy, but we have to try, and this bill is an intelligent, good-faith effort in that regard. It deserves the vote of every Democrat and every Republican. It deserves to become law.

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