Regulators are under intense pressure to tighten workplace safety regulations and impose tougher penalties on violators, following several recent fatal coal mine disasters. Tensions are high between industry and lawmakers, as they seek to strike a balance between addressing workplace safety concerns and imposing costly - sometimes economic "death knell" - requirements on contractors in order to encourage workplace safety. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has broad jurisdiction, ranging from expansive coal mining operations on the East Coast to small, family-owned gravel quarries in Oregon. Although coal mining in Pennsylvania is dramatically different from aggregate production in Oregon, local operators are subject to the same stringent MSHA regulations.
An independent report released today shows that miners digging out some of the most valuable coal in the world for one of the most profitable and largest coal mining companies were saddled with decrepit safety equipment and a corporate culture that emphasized production over health and safety. Mine safety expert Davitt McAteer, at the request of West Virginia`s governor, headed up the independent investigation of the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners working in the Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, W.Va.
Chairman of one of the country's biggest coal mining companies, Don Blankenship of Massey Energy, told an ABC News reporter before grabbing the reporter's camera. Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, commenting on the passage of a new law that exempts names of concealed weapons permit holders from the state's Freedom of Information Act.
RECENTLY I joined 19 other Kentuckians in a sit-in at the office of Gov. Steve Beshear. We were there to protest his support of mountaintop removal, a technique used by coal-mining companies that, as its name implies, involves blasting away the tops of mountains and hills to get at the coal seams beneath. Since it was first used in 1970, mountaintop removal has destroyed some 500 mountains and poisoned at least 1,200 miles of rivers and streams across the Appalachian coal-mining region. Yet Beshear is so committed to the practice that he recently allied with the Kentucky Coal Association in a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency to block more stringent regulations of it. In court, his administration's lawyers referred to public opposition as simply "an unwarranted burden.
* I keep seeing all these Spike Maynard commercials on TV. If you would like Don Blankenship and Massey Energy to represent you in Washington D.C., then vote for him. Otherwise, you better vote for somebody else. * What Governor Manchin and the coal miners rallying in Washington have failed to realize is that the EPA is not against coal mining - it's against the destruction of our mountains and streams. Coal mining companies need to be responsible for conducting business without the desecration of our beautiful state.
Coal Mining Industry and Coal Mining Companies Under Pressure WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The coal mining industry and coal mining companies are under increasing pressure from a variety of fronts.
On the taxes side, severance and other taxes paid by coal mining companies--including workers' compensation, corporate income tax and franchise tax but not including payroll taxes--currently make up about a 10th of the state's general revenue fund, according to Mark Muchow, deputy revenue secretary in the State Tax Department The state depended on coal severance taxes alone for 7 percent of general revenue in fiscal year 1997, according to the State Budget Office. "[...] the local hit is probably the more significant hit," Muchow said.
BLAIR - Hundreds of protesters reached the summit of Blair Mountain on Saturday, marking the end of a weeklong, 50-mile march to raise awareness of mountaintop-removal mining and labor rights in West Virginia. The protesters came from far and wide to participate in the journey, hailing not only from West Virginia, but also Kentucky, Utah, North Carolina, Tennessee, Australia and Japan. The five-day march was an effort to preserve Blair Mountain as a historical site and to prevent coal companies from using it for mountaintop-removal mining.
Oral arguments about a lawsuit Hugh Caperton filed against A.T. Massey Coal Co. in Buchanan County Circuit Court will begin Tuesday in southwest Virginia. Back on Aug. 1, 2002, a Boone County Circuit Court jury awarded Caperton and his companies a $50 million verdict after deciding Massey forced those companies - Harman Development Corp., Harman Mining Corp. and Sovereign Coal Sales - into bankruptcy.
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