The Obama administration is proceeding with aggressive plans to improve the safety of miners as the one-year anniversary nears of the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia.
Despite an antiregulatory mood among Capitol Hill Republicans, the Mine Safety and Health Administration is pushing ahead with proposals to expand federal mining oversight. So far, Republican lawmakers have put up little resistance (E&E Daily, March 4).
The last thing many congressional coal-mining boosters want to do is hurt an industry that provides much-needed jobs in Appalachia and other mining strongholds. At the same time, lawmakers do not want a repeat of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, which killed 29 workers and was the worst U.S. mining disaster in 30 years.
Almost immediately after the Upper Big Branch disaster, MSHA inspectors began "impact inspections" of mines with a history of problems. In January alone, they issued almost 400 citations and orders in those probes (E&ENews PM, Feb 17).
The agency is also in the midst of an education campaign to remind mining companies and miners about common risks. In December, for example, MSHA said it was emphasizing the prevention of accidents with shuttle cars and scoops used to transport materials that have been linked to more than a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries since 2000.
MSHA chief Joseph Main, says his agency really needs a new law providing expanded authority to crack down on problem mines.
"New legislation should provide us sufficient authority to act," Main said at a recent House oversight hearing.
Some lawmakers, especially Democrats, want to give MSHA more authority, including increased civil and criminal penalties for violators. But Republican leaders have said it is premature to move forward with legislation before the Upper Big Branch investigations are complete.
As lawmakers debate and legislation stalls, Main has moved to fix significant problems within the agency, some of which were outlined by the Department of Labor's inspector general in a report last year. The report said MSHA had failed to enact tougher oversight at coal mines with a history of violations (Greenwire, Sept. 30, 2010).
In September, MSHA announced new screening criteria under its pattern-of-violations program, which is at the center of the debate over the agency's mine safety oversight. Mine operators were able to avoid getting on the pattern-of-violations list, which means stricter enforcement, through appeals.
"We have a backlog that precludes a lot of immediate action. There are so many violations stacked up, 80,000-some violations," Main told the House panel. "It's going to take us in a matter of, not months, but years to get the backlog down."
Beyond the new screening criteria, the agency has proposed a new rule on a pattern of violations (POV) at mines. The proposal would eliminate a requirement that only final citations and orders can be used in MSHA's review. In other words, it will be easier for MSHA to put mines on the POV list.
"As I've said many times before, the current POV system is broken, and this regulation is the next critical step in reforming the enforcement program under the existing statute," Main said in a statement.
In August, the agency issued guidelines to remind operators about ventilation requirements. MSHA described it as an effort to prevent explosions from methane and dust accumulation. An emergency temporary standard followed for underground bituminous coal mines.
Federal investigators have said they believe the Upper Big Branch disaster was triggered by a small methane ignition sparked by accumulated coal dust.
Another proposed rule would require underground coal mine operators to identify, record and correct violations of health or safety standards.
A rule to prevent black lung disease is also in the works amid industry claims that the proposal is based on flawed data (E&E Daily, Feb. 16). The industry said it would struggle to comply if the proposal is put on the books.
Industry has pointed to President Obama's ordering agencies early this year to eliminate rules that are outdated and could stifle the economy to make a point about the mining office being out of step with the administration's efforts to stimulate the economy.
But MSHA officials say they are taking industry and public comments into account on proposed rules while also trying to do right by miners who died in last April's Upper Big Branch blast.
"Our core mission in life," Main said, "is to find the problems and fix them."
