House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday pledged to “look for inadequacies in the law and enforcement practices” following the West Virginia mining accident that killed 25 workers.

Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch Mine, site of the explosion Monday, is in Rahall’s district. Rahall, noting West Virginia is in mourning, vowed to review health and safety violations at the mine to see whether laws were “circumvented.”

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) has dispatched two committee investigators to the scene, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Here is Rahall’s entire statement:

West Virginia is in mourning today. Twenty-five of its hard-working, courageous miners have been lost and we are bound together with their families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers in grief, while we continue to hope and pray for survivors. I want to know why this tragedy happened; there will be a thorough investigation. We will seek answers about the cause of this disaster. We will look for inadequacies in the law and enforcement practices, and I will work to fix any we find. We will scrutinize the health and safety violations at this mine to see whether the law was circumvented and miners precious lives were willfully put at risk, and there will be accountability.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu used a Washington, D.C. speech Tuesday to tout the potential of U.S. natural gas.

Chu told the Energy Information Administration conference that advancements in drilling technologies have increased reserves by at least 30 percent, and they probably have doubled, Bloomberg reports.

From their piece:

“That’s a big deal because it will be a transition fuel as we go to renewables,” Chu said. The reserves of natural gas that can be recovered from shale deposits using a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing is “yet to be proven,” Chu said.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday offered his "deepest condolences" the families of the victims of a deadly coal mine explosion.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) has dispatched two committee investigators to the scene of the deadly mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 25 workers and left four missing.

The accident Monday at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch South mine is the worst mining disaster in the U.S. in over two decades.

One investigator left yesterday and another is en route to the scene today, a committee spokesman said. The committee has jurisdiction over the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller on Tuesday issued a statement memorializing the victims of the worst U.S. mining disaster in 20 years.

At least 25 workers have died in the worst mine explosion in over two decades. Four coal miners were still missing as of Tuesday morning and thought dead.

From the Associated Press: “Rescuers began drilling three deep holes to vent methane and carbon monoxide from the mine so that search teams can go back in. But it will take until evening to get the first hole done and see if the mine air will allow re-entry, Gov. Joe Manchin said.”

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration will investigate this blast “and take action."

“Miners should never have to sacrifice their lives for their livelihood,” Solis said, according to the AP.

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Energy Department spokeswoman Jenni Lee provides the following comment about the lawsuit that utilities filed against DoE Monday over federal nuclear waste fees:

“President Obama is taking action to restart the nuclear industry as part of a broad approach to cut carbon pollution and create new clean energy jobs, including an $8 billion loan guarantee for a nuclear power plant in Georgia. The Administration is fully committed to keeping the nation’s commitment to safely store and manage spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The fees collected from the nuclear industry are legally mandated and reviewed every year, and will pay the cost of the eventual, long-term disposition of the materials. Secretary Chu has appointed a Blue Ribbon Commission of respected, bipartisan experts to make recommendations on these issues, including how the fees should be handled moving forward.”

Nuclear power companies and state utility regulators are suing the Energy Department.

The big Senate climate and energy bill hasn’t arrived yet, but the battles over money have already begun.