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President Trump wants to boost mineral production in the United States. An executive order last month called on the federal government to fast-track permit approvals and find new sites for mining. But mine safety experts have a warning here that federal layoffs are weakening an agency that helps to prevent mine disasters. Justin Hicks of the Appalachia Mid-South Newsroom reports.
JUSTIN HICKS, BYLINE: I recently visited the entrance of the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. There, 29 shiny black miner helmets adorn 29 red crosses. Above them are photos taped to a steel beam.
Most of these photos have been here so long that they're just faded by the sun. There's one or two that you can make out eyes.
This is a memorial to miners who died on April 5, 2010, in the worst mine disaster in half a century.
STANLEY STEWART: Not a day goes by that it don't cross my mind.
HICKS: That's Stanley Stewart. He's one of two survivors from the mine explosion. And Stewart still recalls performing CPR on his friends.
STEWART: They smelled like dynamite, nostrils and mouth just filled with black soot. And you're working on them, and you know that they're gone, but you hope maybe.
HICKS: About five years later, the mine's CEO was found guilty of knowingly cutting corners. Investigations found that an understaffed federal agency didn't enforce enough safety laws. Today, Stewart and others in the mining industry worry the Trump administration's staffing cuts are setting the stage for another possible disaster. The cuts come alongside Trump's promises to increase mining in the U.S. Stewart says that makes miners vulnerable.
STEWART: These guys, it's going to be tough. It's going to be even real tough. And tell you right now, I wouldn't want to be in a coal mine.
HICKS: The budget for the Mine Safety and Health Administration - or MSHA - has already been flat for years. Carey Clarkson represents Department of Labor workers for the American Federation of Government Employees. He says MSHA can barely keep up with routine inspections, much less target bad actors.
CAREY CLARKSON: We're just so low on manpower right now, we just can't do all that stuff.
HICKS: Then Elon Musk and DOGE came along. Clarkson says around 120 employees at MSHA accepted the fork in the road buyout offer. That's about 7% of the agency's full-time workforce.
CLARKSON: Out of the 120, I can't even imagine how many years of experience we've lost.
HICKS: An MSHA spokesperson said it will continue to perform legally required inspections and remains committed to protecting miners. Meanwhile, DOGE's website shows plans to terminate leases for dozens of mine safety offices across the country. MSHA says those leases are under review. Clarkson said the union asked what that means for staff.
CLARKSON: You ask the questions are y'all going to transfer these people to another office or are you going to terminate these employees, and there's no response.
HICKS: When the Upper Big Branch mine disaster happened, Joe Main had just started as the head of MSHA. He says he inherited an understaffed and inexperienced agency, and he worries it's worse off today.
JOE MAIN: It don't take a rocket scientist to figure out we're on a similar path but on steroids right now.
HICKS: And Main says he's worried about a lack of pushback from elected representatives, some of them the very same people who grilled him in hearings after the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine.
MAIN: The silence is just scary, that they're not just asking questions, poking what the heck's going on here on behalf of the miners and their families.
HICKS: The number of mining jobs has already increased in recent years from coal to gravel quarries to lithium, all things we use every day. The federal employee union says Trump's latest push for more mining also means more workers to protect.
For NPR News, I'm Justin Hicks in Montcoal, West Virginia.
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