Ken Ward has done a great job to point out how many of the Bush Administration’s policies (or lack thereof) have hurt coal miners and hampered miner safety:

During his tenure, he filled the agency’s top jobs with former industry colleagues, dropped more than a dozen safety proposals initiated during the Clinton administration, and cut almost 200 of the agency’s 1,200 coal mine inspectors. Mine-safety experts have linked many of these actions to the causes of deadly mine accidents since 2001.

Its a really sad, but eye-opening read.