Mine safety cuts pushed by coal owner
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com
State Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps
Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps, is pushing a bill in Frankfort to cut safety standards for the kind of small coal mines that he owns in Eastern Kentucky.
Hall is the sponsor of House Bill 119, which would reduce from two to one the number of mine emergency technicians (or METs) required at coal mines if the mines employ fewer than 18 people. The bill was approved Feb. 12 by the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment, where Hall is vice chairman. It awaits a full House vote.
Mine safety advocates are criticizing Hall not only for proposing fewer METs at small coal mines, but because the change would benefit him personally.
Among his many business interests, Hall is president of Beech Creek Coal Co., which owns Eastern Kentucky coal reserves that are leased for mining to Kimara Coal Co. In an interview Monday, Hall said each of those three mines employ fewer than 18 people, so they would be allowed to halve their on-site METs if his bill becomes law.
About 47 percent of the state’s 586 coal mines have fewer than 18 employees, according to the state Office of Mine Safety and Licensing.
Typically, mine operators pay about $1 an hour extra to miners who are certified as METs, who are trained to provide medical care during on-site emergencies. So a small mine operator running several shifts might pocket $25 a day by eliminating an MET position, said Steve Earle, a United Mine Workers of America representative.
“Obviously, this is a huge conflict of interest for him,” said Earle, who is lobbying against Hall’s bill.
Wes Addington, deputy director of the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center in Whitesburg, said Hall should not have proposed the bill. “I don’t think most people go to the voting booths so they can elect leaders who want to benefit themselves,” he said.
The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission has ruled that state lawmakers are free to push measures that would benefit themselves personally so long as it would benefit other people in their class, too, such as other owners of small coal mines.
Several House Democrats are employed in the coal industry, either directly or indirectly, including Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg; Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook; and Natural Resources and Environment Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence.
Hall said his bill is necessary because small mines that employ just a handful of people can’t always have two METs on site. If one MET calls in sick, an entire shift has to be canceled and valuable coal production is lost, Hall said.
“It’s not a safety issue, it’s an availability issue,” Hall said. “For the small Mom-and-Pop operators, we can’t get people trained fast enough. … I’m talking about an auger crew of three of four guys, or a conventional crew of eight men, that cannot get two METs.”
The state had certified 4,565 miners as METs as of Jan. 1, according to the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing. The training is provided for free by the state.
Hall said he understands that mine safety advocates have concerns, so he plans to meet with them and state officials next Wednesday to discuss the availability of METs and how the current law is enforced.
He said state officials may be misinterpreting the existing law as requiring two METs underground at all times during underground production, when in fact, only one of the two METs has to be underground. That aggravates matters for mine operators, he said.
“I’m gonna have a little come-to-Jesus meeting with everyone and see where we stand,” Hall said.
Johnny Greene, executive director of the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing, did not respond to a request for comment about his agency’s enforcement of the law.
The minimum requirement of two METs is part of a broad 2007 law the legislature passed that tightened mine safety standards, such as doubling the safety inspections at underground mines.
Safety advocates called for more on-site METs after miner Bud Morris bled to death in a 2005 Harlan County coal mine accident. The sole MET at that mine panicked and failed to render medical aid for Morris.
The ink hadn’t dried on the 2007 mine safety law before mine operators began lobbying Frankfort to repeal parts of it, complaining that it was too burdensome, said Earle, the labor leader.
“We had eight coal miners killed in Kentucky last year. Now is not the time to be rolling back safety standards in a law that we just passed two years ago, and only then after a lot of negotiating and compromises,” Earle said.
Filed Under: Featured • KY General Assembly • State Government
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First, someone should look at the safety records to see how often an MET has been useful and how often 2 were necessary. If the rule is changed and a mine only has one MET and that MET is absent, then the mine shuts down until the MET is in attendance. Would be a good idea to have the second MET just for that reason. But should a 2nd MET required???
Under Mr Hall`s bill to cut the METs, if one called in sick you would still have to shut the shift down because you wouldn`t have any.
I believe that he has a conflict of interest on this like so many of these “leaders” bills.
Who votes these people in and what were they thinking?
Talk about a conflict of interest. Someone needs to have a “come to Jesus” talk to Mr. Hall about being responsible for the lives of his employees that are in danger every day that they work.
Mr. Hall should be ashamed of proposing such a bill. As the son of a MET certified coal miner I can think of several emergencies in which my father has used the training he recieved. In one particular instance his training saved a man’s life after being pinched between two pieces of equipment. Now, let me also say I am not in favor of putting unreasonable burdens on companies. After all if the company is not profitable the miners will not have jobs; but lets get real though, there are safer ways to save $25 a day. Secondly, I thought that a state representative is supposed to represent the people of their are not themselves.
All we need in the mines are more women CNN And Fox Telling us what we need to make us safe.Ps I forgot about the Lawyers. Who have never been underground and never will.
In Vietnam we learned the importance of emergency medical care during the first hour after a soldier was wounded. The fatality rate for each thousand wounded was far lower that in WWII.
This was the same reasoning behind the demand for EMT’s “Emergency Medical Technicians” to be placed in the mines and emergency response plans to be filed. The training for the EMT Training is provided free by the state or federal programs from what I understand. The EMT’s do usually get a dollar an hour above base pay for taking responsibility and volunteering . The act of a Pike County Representative submerged in the coal business with an obvious conflict of interest, even filing a bill to reduce the number of EMT’s in the mines is a shameful disgrace. I can’t believe a representative with such obvious ties with the coal industry would even offer a piece of legislation that would decrease the chances of an injured miner living to see his family again. This is a slap in the face to every man who goes underground to make a living and to the miners family who waits for them at home.
A line has been crossed here between what the people in a coal county can accept as business as usual to save a coal company a few bucks or the chance for an injured loved one to survive the constant dangers faced in underground mining. It is evident the death of a loved one in the mines has never touched this mans life as it has for so many of his constituents.
Mining for dollars with dead miners!
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