TWO MORE DEAD. Saint Barbara's Still Working Alone-Bush Administration Scrapped Safety Plan

After one of the deadliest months for coal mining in years, federal mine regulators last week began formally considering safety improvements to help miners survive underground fires and explosions. Among the proposals: mandatory caches of oxygen tanks and breathing masks inside every coal mine.

The idea may have struck some miners as familiar, because it was. A similar proposal was put forward by the same regulators six years ago, only to be scrapped by the Bush administration shortly after it took office. And the oxygen caches were not the only proposed safety improvement to be withdrawn.
Federal Mine Agency Considers New Rules To Improve Safety
Plan Was Rejected Early in Administration
By Joby Warrick Washington Post