E2 Round-up: Mine escaped tougher enforcement despite safety violations, states fight to keep climate plans, being anti-nuclear when everyone else is talking about a renaissance

* Mine operator had “pattern of violations” but escaped stepped-up enforcement.

The New York Times leads with this report on the mine disaster in West Virginia: “The operator of the West Virginia mine that exploded on Monday, killing at least 25 people, was warned by federal officials just over two years ago that it could be cited for having a 'pattern of violations,' which would have allowed far stricter federal oversight of the mine. But the mine escaped the stepped-up enforcement even though it continued to amass violations, federal records show.”

The Mine Safety and Health Administration had warned Massey Energy in a 2007 letter that “the mine had received 204 violations that were deemed serious and significant over the previous two years, well above average,” according to the Times.

Massey implemented a plan to fix the problems and the violations went down, but the incidents rose again last year, according to the newspaper.

The Washington Post has a similar piece.

According to the Post: MSHA ordered the evacuation of miners from parts of the Upper Big Branch coal mine “64 times since the beginning of 2009 because of safety violations, but federal regulators said the mine did not show the ‘pattern of violation’ that would have allowed them to take harsher measures.”

States worry that the federal climate legislation will block their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Groups of state environmental chiefs, attorneys general, and US senators wrote the drafters of the federal bill in recent weeks, expressing concern that it could undo gains made under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state pact that puts a price on carbon emissions from power plants and devotes a majority of the proceeds to improving energy efficiency,” the Boston Globe reports today.

Ben has also blogged on the delicate issue of preemption.

* Anti-nuclear in the age of Obama

It’s hard to be an anti-nuclear activist these days. The Los Angeles Times profiles Lou Zeller, who is waging war on President Obama’s plans for a nuclear renaissance.

The Times lays out the difficulties for people like Zeller: “Concerns about nuclear safety now jostle for attention with the growing fear of climate change, and the desire, even among progressives like Obama, to find alternatives to fossil fuels. A Gallup poll in March found that 62% of Americans support the use of nuclear energy -- the highest percentage since the firm began tracking the issue in 1994.”