Voices from coal country say closures of MSHA offices will endanger mine safety

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Retired coal miner Stanley “Goose” Stewart questions whether it's safe for anyone to work in the industry right now.

The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has been targeting federal agencies for spending cuts. That includes terminating leases for three dozen offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for enforcing mine safety laws.

The proposals for MSHA are “idiotic,” Stewart said, and would give coal companies “the green light to do as they please.”

Safety laws and their enforcement played a significant role before and after the Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia blew up 15 years ago Saturday, killing 29 of Stewart's co-workers.

Stewart was there that day but soon stepped away for good, focusing on his love for hunting, fishing and tending to his chickens and his garden when the weather warms.

Coal mining in West Virginia, meanwhile, spent the ensuing years in a political fight that Republicans largely won. As a 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton was slammed for saying that her plans to shift away from carbon-based fuels like coal would put miners out of business. Trump vowed to save the industry, and while mining jobs have not made a comeback, coal states like West Virginia have become reliable Republican strongholds.

Advocates for the mining industry argue that state government is up to the task of keeping mines safe, although some lawmakers in West Virginia's Republican majority have used the existence of federal inspectors as justification for curtailing the state inspectors' enforcement power. They also point to the dwindling number of mining fatalities — and mines in general.

Republican Tom Clark, a West Virginia state lawmaker and a former MSHA inspector and supervisor who worked in one West Virginia office slated for closure, said he expected it to shutter years ago. Eight MSHA employees currently work in the Summersville office, Clark said, less than a third of the workforce that existed there about 10 years ago.

Clark said he doesn’t have any concerns for miners, as long as those inspectors are transferred to other coalfield-based offices. Clark, who worked on MSHA's Upper Big Branch investigation, said he supports the Trump administration's efforts to streamline government and stimulate the economy.

“It’s going to take time and there’s going to be some pain for all the American people, I think," he said. “But if we can hang in there and battle through, we all may be better off. I hope so.”

Clark said the federal government should not cut down on inspectors and said black lung benefits need to be funded. He said the government should use money they’re saving to make sure those programs have what they need.

“Funding shouldn’t be a consideration for keeping people healthy,” he said. “It really shouldn’t.”

But Stewart, the former miner, said the MSHA office closures will impact safety.

“I wouldn’t recommend anybody get in the mining industry right now because of what’s going on with Trump and Musk,” he said.

Stewart said he's never supported Trump and never would, but he struggles to explain the loyalty of many West Virginians, including coal miners, to the president. He said Trump had never done anything to help them.

“I can’t wrap my brain around why they can’t see what a con man he is. I just hope someday they’ll wake up. It may already be too late.”

Congress created MSHA within the Department of Labor in 1978, in part because state inspectors were seen as too close to the industry to force coal companies to take the sometimes costly steps necessary to protect miners. MSHA is required to inspect each underground mine quarterly and each surface mine twice a year.

MSHA inspectors are supposed to check every working section of a mine. They examine electrical and ventilation systems that protect miners from deadly black lung disease, inspect impoundment dams and new roof bolts, and make sure mining equipment is safe, said Jack Spadaro, a longtime mine safety investigator and environmental specialist who worked for MSHA.

Mining fatalities over the past four decades have dropped significantly, in large part because of the dramatic decline in coal production. But the proposed DOGE cuts would require MSHA inspectors to travel farther to get to a mine, and Spadaro said that could lead to less thorough inspections.

“It’s a stupid proposal made by stupid people who obviously have no concept or no knowledge about mine safety,” Spadaro said.

Robert Cash, a 55-year-old mine roof bolt operator from Foster, West Virginia, said miners feel “in the dark” about how closing offices will impact safety.

“It's just a big scare around here," he said. “If we have a disaster and they closed down an MSHA office close to us, now what’s the response time to get someone out there to start the investigation?”

Stewart was inside Upper Big Branch when it exploded on April 5, 2010, with a blast he described as “hurricane force winds.” Before reaching the surface, he tried to revive some of his fallen co-workers, then covered their bodies with blankets.

Investigations determined that worn and broken cutting equipment created a spark that ignited coal dust and methane gas.

After the disaster, MSHA sent inspection teams to conduct impact inspections at mines with a history of repeated problems, many of them underground operations in West Virginia and Kentucky, which have nearly half of the nation’s coal mines. Under the second Trump administration, the impact inspections have stopped.

Joe Main, MSHA’s chief during the Obama administration, said on Musk’s social media site X that weakened MSHA enforcement staffing contributed to the Upper Big Branch disaster and that the proposed DOGE cuts “can risk miners' lives in an agency already short staffed.”

Some 34 MSHA offices in 19 states have been targeted for closure. Hundreds of federal occupational health employees doing mining-related work and research were laid off this past week as part of cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“If you take away all those protections, you're kind of making the workers disposable,” said Dr. Carl Werntz, a West Virginia physician who conducts black lung examinations. “That's terribly concerning.”

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said no federal agency has reached out to confirm that seven MSHA offices are closing there.

"My concern is that what Elon Musk is trying to do is break government, not fix it," Beshear said.

Conflicts within the coal industry go back over a century. The West Virginia Mine Wars involved a long-running dispute between coal companies and miners fed up with deadly work and poor wages and living conditions. When union organizers showed up, the companies retaliated.

Membership in the United Mine Workers union peaked in 1946, then plummeted as government support waned and the industry waged an all-out war on union mines. Today, a majority of U.S. coal mines are nonunion and the UMW is a shell of the powerful safety advocate it once was.

UMW President Cecil Roberts said workers’ safety will be left “solely in the hands of employers” in the absence of protections from the union and the federal government.

“History has shown us time and time again that doing so is a recipe for disaster, especially in the mining industry,” he said.

Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

FILE - A memorial to 29 miners killed in a 2010 explosion stands at the entrance to the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., Dec. 3, 2015. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)

FILE - The Upper Big Branch Miners Memorial is illuminated in Whitesville, W.Va. Dec. 3, 2015. The memorial honors 29 miners killed in a 2010 explosion at the nearby Upper Big Branch mine. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)

Retired coal miner Stanley "Goose" Stewart stands outside his home in Orgas, W.Va., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raby)

FILE - A statue of a coal miner stands at the West Virginia Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., Aug. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)

Retired coal miner Stanley "Goose" Stewart holds a helmet he wore inside the Upper Big Branch mine when it blew up on April 5, 2010, killing 29 men, as he stands for a portrait at his home in Orgas, W.Va., on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raby)

DENVER (AP) — The Denver Nuggets haven't been the same since blowing a chance to beat their nemesis in double-overtime on April 2.

They've dropped three straight since a 140-139 heartbreaker that the Minnesota Timberwolves stole from them after Russell Westbrook missed an uncontested layup to seal it, then fouled Nickeil Alexander-Walker on a 3-pointer with a tenth of a second left and Denver clinging to a one-point lead.

Alexander-Walker sank two free throws to run Minnesota's winning streak over Denver to six games and ruin Nikola Jokic's career-best 61-point performance that night.

The Nuggets lost to San Antonio the next night with all five starters sitting out, then dropped a game at Golden State despite a 44-point first quarter. On Sunday night, they blew a 13-point first-half lead and committed three crucial turnovers down the stretch in their 125-120 loss to the short-handed Indiana Pacers that saddled the Nuggets with their first four-game skid of the season.

“I don't know if I would say there's been a hangover,” coach Michael Malone said. “We were up tonight. We got up by 13. We weren't able to hold on. We were up in Golden State, weren't able to hold on. So, I don't know if it's a hangover necessarily, but whatever it is we've got to find a way to get this out of our system.”

They'll likely have to do it without point guard Jamal Murray, who missed his fifth consecutive game with a pulled right hamstring Sunday night.

Asked before tip-off Sunday if he expects Murray to be back in action by the playoffs, Malone said, “hopefully he’s able to be back by then.”

But where will the Nuggets be?

Anywhere from Ball Arena to a play-in game.

Denver is still in fourth place in the Western Conference playoff race but just a-half game out of eighth place with three games remaining.

Christian Braun, who scored a career-best 30 points against the Pacers but got tangled with Jokic on a crucial turnover with 15 seconds left and the Nuggets down two, said he trusts the Nuggets can still straighten things out in time.

“We get to the playoffs I know this team can compete with anybody," Braun said. "We've got to go in there with momentum. We've got to go in there playing the right way. We've got to find a way to find some toughness.

“We've got to get back to who we are and we've got to find ourselves in these last three games. Like I said, it's not over or anything like that. But we do got to get some momentum.”

The Nuggets visit Sacramento on Wednesday night, then host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night before wrapping things up Sunday at Houston.

Before the game, Malone said the reason he's stuck with Westbrook despite his blunders of late is that he looks at his whole body of work this season, not the last week's foibles.

“We wouldn’t be where we are right now, in fourth place with four games to go, if it wasn’t for Russell this year,” Malone said.

After the game, the Nuggets said Westbrook had been admonished by the league for declining post-game interviews and that he was available in the locker room.

But Westbrook's comments recalled Marshawn Lynch's “I'm just here so I won't get fined,” routine.

Q: Is there a sense of urgency in this locker room to avoid the play-in?

“I don't know, man, you know, unsure.”

Q: Malone mentioned your value as a veteran. What can you draw from to help this team?

“I don't know. I don't have the answer for you, man. I wish I did. But unfortunately, I don't.”

Q: What's frustrating you most right now?

“Um, probably just losing.”

Q: Where's the confidence this group can figure something out these next three games?

“I hope it's high. I can't speak for everybody in the locker room. But my head stays high, get ready for Wednesday.”

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Indiana Pacers guard T.J. McConnell, right, drives past Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun, left, in the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic reacts after missing last-second, 3-point basket- attempt in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook reacts after hitting a 3-point basket against the Indiana Pacers in the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)