Senate bill would end state safety inspections of coal mines

The state of Kentucky would stop inspecting coal mines for safety violations under a Senate bill filed Thursday, leaving the job entirely to federal inspectors, who visit mines less frequently.

State Sen. Chris Girdler, sponsor of Senate Bill 297, said Friday that the beleaguered coal industry needs a break. More than 10,000 mine jobs have disappeared across Kentucky in recent years as mines closed, Girdler said. The remaining mines no longer need to be inspected by both the state Office of Mine Safety and Licensing and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, he said.

“This is a step in the right direction for fiscal responsibility,” said Girdler, R-Somerset.

“We need to change the mission of what the (state mine agency) will do, hopefully to more of a behavior-modification role, to be proactive and work with the mines rather than just write citations,” Girdler said. “Right now, all we’re seeing is a duplication of roles. MSHA is doing the inspections as well as the state.”

Explaining how he envisions the state’s future role, Girdler said: “Instead of coming in and writing you up for doing something wrong, you know, if you’re doing an underground roof-bolt system, maybe I’m gonna come in and say, ‘Hey, keep that elbow down. That way if something falls down, you’re not going to lose your arm.’ As compared to writing up a bulldozer for not having a windshield wiper working when it’s 90 degrees and sunny outside.”

But coal-industry watchdogs said Girdler’s bill would eliminate crucial safeguards that the legislature passed a decade ago after several mine disasters in Kentucky, including Harlan County’s Darby mine explosion in 2006 that killed five men. The state inspects underground mines for safety hazards at least six times a year, and all others at least twice a year, sometimes with different responsibilities and greater enforcement powers than MSHA, which must check underground mines four times a year and surface mines twice a year.

Simply put, Girdler’s bill would cut the number of mine inspections in Kentucky by more than half, said Tony Oppegard, a mine-safety lawyer in Lexington.

“The safest day that a Kentucky coal miner gets is the day when inspectors are in his mine, because that’s the only day he knows for sure the company is going to abide by the law,” Oppegard said. “Just because there are fewer mines today than there were 10 years ago does not mean that the mines still here need to be less safe. It’s just short-sighted and ignorant to think this is a good idea.”

State mine inspections are stronger than federal mine inspections in many ways, Oppegard said. Among the differences, state inspectors have subpoena power, while MSHA must convene a public hearing before it can issue subpoenas, he said. The state’s 62 mine inspectors also look for violations particular to state law, such as safe retreat-mining practices, continuous operation of mine fans and the presence of two mine emergency technicians on each shift.

“Cutting inspections is not going to save the coal industry. What it is going to do is significantly reduce the safety of coal miners,” Oppegard said.

The senator disputed that Friday.

“My father-in law was in the coal industry. I’ve had many good friends in mining. I would never do anything that I thought would potentially put miners at risk or endanger them,” Girdler said.

The state Office of Mine Safety and Licensing has steadily downsized alongside the industry it regulates, shedding dozens of jobs. Its budget this year is $11 million. Gov. Matt Bevin has proposed cutting that to $10 million annually in the next state budget. Apart from checking mines for violations, inspectors train miners in workplace safety and take charge of mine rescue and recovery.

Girdler said that, despite the cuts, the state mine agency remains overstaffed and overly aggressive in the face of a declining coal industry.

“The mine inspectors are basically trying to validate their existence. You’re seeing 12 to 15 inspectors a day on one particular job site,” Girdler said.

The Bevin administration “generally supports” Girdler’s bill, said John Mura, spokesman for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, which oversees the state mine agency.

The bill “in its current state does not conform to our understanding of what we know to be its intent. We will continue to work to ensure that it does,” Mura said. “However, it ends the duplication of mine inspections that now exists with the efforts of both state inspectors and federal inspectors from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In addition, it allows the state to reinstitute the Mine Safety Analyst Program that is a proven and effective way to reduce mine accidents through a behavior-based safety analysis.”

Girdler’s bill is only the latest attempt by the Republican-led Senate to roll back some of Kentucky’s mine-safety laws.

In 2014, Senate Republican leaders tucked language inside the state budget bill reducing the frequency of state mine inspections by two-thirds, but they abandoned the effort after it was reported by the news media. Last month, Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, filed a bill to end mandatory state safety training for mine foremen, citing a need to end “over-regulation” of the industry. That bill, SB 224, has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.

Politicians will strengthen mine-safety laws after enough miners are killed, said Wes Addington, deputy director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, a nonprofit law firm in Whitesburg that represents miners. But once the laws have reduced mine fatalities and the public’s attention wanders, there is usually a push by the coal industry and its political allies to weaken them, “saying they’re obviously no longer necessary, because fatalities are down,” he said.

Kentucky had two coal-mine deaths in 2015, matching record low totals from 2007, 2013 and 2014.

Girdler’s bill “is a terrible idea that ignores the history of mine disasters in this country, and especially in Kentucky,” Addington said. “If you gut the state inspection agency, how do you explain it to the next mining family after the next fatality? ‘I’m sorry about your loss, but fiscally, this just seemed like the best thing for us to do.’”

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Senate bill would end state safety inspections of coal mines."