The Trump administration has issued new rules to strip power from district mine safety officials while it seeks to ramp up coal production. Some warn the revisions will make mining more dangerous, while industry says it makes enforcement more consistent.
Mining companies are required to develop unique safety plans at each site around things like ventilating explosive gases and dust, safety training for miners and ensuring roof supports to prevent cave-ins.
Those plans go through a district manager for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for approval. During that process, the district manager can require mines to develop extra precautions based on that mine’s conditions.
It’s been that way for nearly 50 years after Congress passed a series of mine safety laws.
Now, the MSHA claims it's federal overreach for district safety officials to require tailored safety measures at specific mines.
In the federal register, the agency wrote that it “essentially amounts to the unfettered ability of the District Manager to draft and create ‘laws’ which are civilly and criminally enforceable, without bicameral presentment, and without notice and comment rulemaking.”
Stephen Turow was an attorney for the Department of Labor for about three decades and represented MSHA on mine roof safety plans. He filed a letter in opposition to the rule changes.
He says countless lives have been saved through the current safety review process — and he’s left "scratching his head” wondering who this change is for.
“This is a system that is not broken and doesn’t require a fix,” he said.
Turow says strong safety plans are needed especially now, as the Trump administration’s push for coal production may cause mining in thinner seams and more dangerous conditions in Appalachia.
“There is no need to change that process; indeed, there is good reason to conclude that the proposed revision will diminish the effectiveness of coal mine roof control efforts, resulting in increased injuries and fatalities for the Nation’s coal miners,” he wrote in a letter to MSHA.
On the other side, industry groups have written letters in support of some of the changes.
MSHA Safety Services, Inc. and N-Compliance Safety Services, Inc. jointly signed a letter in support of keeping MSHA district managers from “open-ended discretion over training plans.” They say it would reduce unnecessary delays and “surprise” enforcement citations if the same rules applied universally.
“When I was being trained as an MSHA inspector at the Mine Academy, the instructors would end each course with ‘this is the law or these are the standards, but do what your District Manager says, not what you are trained on,’ the letter said. “This inconsistency has always been an issue within the agency, and how the standards are meted out throughout the United States and her Commonwealths.”
Other proposed rules seek to remove “outdated” regulations around technology MSHA says are no longer used in mining such as trolleys, blacksmith shops, flame safety lamps and conveyor belts.
MSHA declined to comment on any of the rule changes. The agency maintains a policy of withholding comment on proposed rules.
