The Unreality-Based Community, New York Times Coal Mine Safety Division

Okay, this post about the Unreality-Based Community and one of its big players’ contention that the right-wing blogosphere is dead was pretty funny. In fact, from time to time I have to pinch myself to be sure I’m still alive.

This post isn’t funny. It’s about coal mine safety. It’s about a stubborn pack of lies that won’t go away in the face of the facts.

Today’s offering is from yesterday’s editorial page of The New York Times, that financially deteriorating former newspaper of record (HT Armed Liberal at Winds of Change, who referred back to that site’s good debunking on March 2, via Instapundit):

The Bush administration’s accommodation of the mining industry — notably by packing the mine safety agencies with pro-management appointees — has produced a marked decline in major fines for negligent companies. A recent data analysis by The Times documented a risky, business-friendly downturn in penalties since 2001. At the same time, nearly half of the announced fines still go uncollected.

….. Beyond the slump in fines, the administration’s record has been distinguished by budget and job cuts in critical mine safety agencies. Lately, there’s been a flurry of reform proposals in response to the deaths in the headlines. But an administration that prefers to fill key regulatory positions with mining lobbyists and executives has a long way to go toward miner safety. It should begin with an urgent reversal of its embarrassing record on penalizing flagrantly negligent companies.

Sigh.

So here we go again, with the main points covered previously (here, here, and here), plus a couple more:

• The most important “downturn” before this year, which tragically has not gone well so far, was in the number of coal mine deaths:

Coal Mine Fatalities, 1995 -2005

• Real Clear Politics Blog documented the decrease in the injury rate.
• This graphic shows a selective 9-year trend in fatalities, injuries and inspection hours through 2004 (2005 is still not available), and shows improved results, with no letup in inspection effort:

  

• On spending, from this previous post — “spending has trended upward during The Bush Administration, from about $250 million in fiscal 2002 (the first budget the administration was responsible for) to about $285 million in fiscal 2005, before being reduced to 2006’s planned amount of roughly $280 million. Even with the 2006 reduction, the increase from 2002 is 12% in 4 years, which is about equal to inflation during that time.”
• More importantly in terms of spending, if onsite inspection hours aren’t being reduced, but spending is, that must mean that the Mine Safety and Health Administration is being more efficient in its back-office operations and in keeping its overhead in Washington under control, making organized labor’s complaint about a 170-person reduction in headcount irrelevant.
• Also, don’t forget that there were 6.4% fewer coal mines in 2004 than there were in 2001 (probably fewer now), and 5.2% fewer coal miners in 2004 than in 2001.
• As to the fines, I believe that many are waived if there is demonstrated compliance, so it’s not a matter of them somehow going uncollected. Only someone with a punitive turn of the century mindset (20th century, not the 21st) would look at the goal of the government inspectors as collecting as much as they can in fines.

As to the Times’ complaint about using industry insiders to adminster the MSHA, I stand by these comments from two of my January posts:

(from the first post)

In fact, these results support the contention that staffing Interior with people who actually know their industry has led to greater safety. And where was The Times when coal mine fatalities increased over 40% during the last three years of the previous administration’s arguable responsiblity (1999, 2000, and 2001, given that a new administration’s first budget and full implementation of its priorities typically does not occur until October of its first year in office)?

(from the second post)

Overall, I would characterize MSHA’s performance in coal mine safety (during the past four years) as a record of continuous improvement (with, of course, the general cooperation of coal mine operators and employees). This is what happens when people who know how to run businesses take the reins of government agencies: They streamline operations while at the same time improving results, all while working together with, instead of antagonizing, the companies they monitor.

Nothing meaningful is accomplished when The Times whines about a modest spending reduction, or when Big Labor objects to gradually shedding workers who aren’t needed, except planting seeds of resentment and bitterness where they don’t belong (but that is the point, isn’t it?). It’s supposed to be all about results, not money.

I can guarantee you that the people at MSHA, and the people that run the mines, think that this year’s death toll (21 coal mining fatalities so far) is unacceptable, and are devoting all their energies to resuming the downward trend. To think otherwise is unsubstantiated slander.

The fact that The Times continues to play the same tune it has since the Sago tragedy occurred in January, in the face of the reality of the previous four years, is nothing more than a cynically opportunistic attempt to discredit an administration they simply cannot abide for purely partisan political reasons. It has led to many embarrassments over a several-year period, a really recent one, and ultimately has caused financial embarrassment. Yet they never learn.

So the decline of The Times continues.

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UPDATE: In aptly titled post (”Groundhog Day at The New York Times”), Pundit Review chips in (sorry guys, I must have deleted your trackback — it’s hard to get good help these days), and revisits their very good post on fatalities and safety from early January.