Deep fear in coal country: DOGE cuts put region's miners and families on edge

[Norbert]

After years of investigating hundreds of mining deaths and injuries, feds move to cancel lease at Mount Pleasant mine safety office

For federal safety inspectors, the urgent call to their sprawling mining office near Pittsburgh was bleak: Man crushed in the rubble of an aging mine in the heart of coal country.

Agents from the Mount Pleasant office arrived at the scene shortly after the body of Joseph Guzzo Jr. had been pulled from under the massive chunk of earth that collapsed in the mine tunnel four years ago.

Then, months after launching an investigation that found the operator failed to provide critical protections, it happened again.

Another worker in a mine just an hour away suffered catastrophic injuries after a large rock broke from a wall and slammed him against a machine...

Remember, this is the same GOP that want to shutter OSHA. Vulture capitalists and billionaires do not need safety protections, so why should anyone else?

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2025/03/30/coal-mine-safety-doge-trump-spending-cuts-federal/stories/202503280062

[SheltieLover]

1. FAFO

[Duncanpup]

2. Exactly

[SheltieLover]

7. How any working person could vote for a rethug boggles my mind.

Never once have they done something to help working Americans.

[Norrrm]

3. Especially now that Trump got all the coal jobs back like he promised.

Promises made. Promises kept.

Right?

[LisaL]

4. They voted for it.

That's MAGATs territories.

[sakabatou]

5. Leopards. Faces. Regret.

[Maeve]

6. The only thing that decreased deaths in mines was law enforcement

Not safety equipment, not rules---it wasn't until the federal government started enforcing the laws that deaths began to decrease. The rules were there, the equipment was there; the min operators told the men to go on as they always had. Rules on how much support the roof needed--ignored until inspectors came.

Read this in the WashPost several month ago, one of the investigative stories of who are the federal workers that are faceless, but important. One former miner pushed for safety to be taken seriously. No longer have access since I unsubscribed,

[SWBTATTReg]

8. So, tRUMP has wiped out imports/exports by now, making a car is now probably twice as much as it was before

tRUMP was in office, and I don't foresee it coming anywhere close to where the moron is saying everything will get cheaper...yeah, right. If anything is going to happen, everything will get more expensive.

He's wiped out the farmer markets too, and hurt farmers too, by freezing all disbursements that was originally going to farmers. Farmers are already feeling the pinch and are declaring bankruptcy.

He's screwed up trade worldwide too, as the world reshapes its trading policies (to avoid imports and exports to/from American shores.

Making Canada the 51st state. And invade Greenland, other places too. What is tRUMP's hang-up? Is he on the verge of dying or something, so he's got this desire to put his name on something concrete, such as making a new state out of some unlucky territory?

[BoRaGard]

9. "Safety is for suckers and losers. Get back in the hole." - G.O.P.

[jrthin]

10. Not an ounce of sympathy for these workers.