Washington (Platts)--23May2007

One year after the passage of the Miner Act, congressional leaders still
aren't happy with the progress of safety in US coal mines. One group of
senators intends to introduce its own bill that would add more requirements to
the Miner Act. 

In the meantime, lawmakers had some tough questions for the Mine Safety and
Health Administration and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
about the slow progress of some changes. 

At a hearing on the progress of implementing the law on Tuesday, Senator Patty
Murray of Washington, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Employment and
Workplace Safety, said she was concerned that the "slow pace of reform" was
continuing to put miners at risk.

"We've made progress, but MSHA has not moved aggressively to implement all of
the provisions of the Miner Act," she charged. 

The legislation she and fellow Democratic senators Edward Kennedy of
Massachusetts and Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia plan on
drafting would further improve mine safety with advances like proximity
detectors, improved record keeping and updated asbestos standards for mines,
she said.

If more safety legislation is under consideration, the National Mining
Association hopes it will focus on industry wide, mandatory drug testing, Luke
Popovich, NMA vice president of communications, said in an e-mail to Platts. 

Mining companies are already working hard to implement the Miner Act that is
proving to be costly and not easy to reconcile with state requirements, he
added.

In many instances, progress is being made. Just last week, a House
subcommittee on education and labor held a demonstration of a refuge chamber
to show how the technology would save miners' lives in an emergency (PCT
5/18). 

In a statement to the committee, MSHA provided a list of things it has done
since the act became law, such as issuing a final rule on civil penalties and
an emergency temporary standard on seals.

Specifically, Murray asked Jeffrey Kohler, NIOSH associate director for
mining, why that agency had not submitted recommendations on refuge chambers
to MSHA.

-- Regina Johnson, regina_johnson@platts.com

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