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Obama to lead memorial for US mining dead
AFP - Monday, April 26
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - – US President Barack Obama is to pledge new efforts to ensure mine safety in a memorial service Sunday honoring 29 Americans killed this month in the worst US mining disaster in decades.
Obama will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden at the ceremony in West Virginia, where the deadly blast ripped through a mine run by Massey Energy, the country's fourth largest coal producer, on April 5.
"We cannot bring back the 29 men we lost. They are with the Lord now," Obama is to say, according to excerpts of his eulogy released in advance by the White House.
"Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy. To do what must be done, individually and collectively, to assure safe conditions underground. To treat our miners the way they treat each other -- like family. For we are all family. We are Americans."
Obama has blamed the disaster on "a failure, first and foremost, of management," but he has stressed that there was "also a failure of oversight."
"The owners responsible for conditions in their Upper Big Branch mine should be held accountable for decisions they made and preventive measures they failed to take," he warned last week.
Massey Energy has been hit with dozens of safety violations over the years, including 57 in March alone, and paid out 4.2 million dollars in criminal and civil fines last year.
"The safety record at the Massey Upper Big Branch Mine was troubling, and it's clear that while there are many responsible companies, far too many mines aren't doing enough to protect their workers' safety," Obama said April 15.
Massey Energy has insisted it had a good safety record and said it was committed to a thorough investigation.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Joe Maine last week submitted a preliminary report on the accident and on the state of mine safety nationwide.
"Starting today we'll go back and take another look at mines across this country with troubling safety records and get inspectors into those mines immediately," Obama said after receiving the report.
In the eulogy, the president will note that in the days following the disaster, emails and letters poured into the White House, asking him to keep American miners in his thoughts.
"Never forget, they say, miners keep America's lights on. Then, they make a simple plea: don't let this happen again."
He was also to pay tribute to the 29 miners, saying they endured hard work and hardship to provide for their loved ones.
"It was all for their families. For a car in the driveway. For a roof overhead. For a chance to give their kids opportunities they never knew; and enjoy retirement with their wives. It was all in the hopes of something better. These miners lived -- as they died -- in pursuit of the American dream."
Coal is a vital fuel in the energy guzzling United States -- almost 45 percent of US electricity was produced by coal-burning plants in 2009.
West Virginia produces 165 million dollars of coal annually, second only to Wyoming in the west, and mining remains a vital part of many states' economies.
Federal prosecutors have brought two criminal complaints for safety violations at other mines run by Massey Energy.
Founded in the 1920s by the Masseys, a powerful industrial family, the group produces about 40 million tonnes of coal each year and is the biggest producer in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.
This month's accident was the worst US coal mine disaster since an explosion killed 38 workers at Finley Coal Company in Kentucky in 1970.
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