{"id":235,"date":"2017-03-15T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=235"},"modified":"2017-03-22T18:24:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T22:24:47","slug":"httpwp-mep8s1zu-3n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/03\/15\/httpwp-mep8s1zu-3n\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky and West Virginia Move to Weaken Protections for Coal Miners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think coal mining, your think West Virginia and Kentucky. And when you think coal mine disasters, you think West Virginia and Kentucky. Traditionally, West Virginia and Kentucky have taken a special interest in the safety of their miners &#8212; to the extent that they both run their own mine safety enforcement programs that supplement enforcement by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).<\/p>\n<p>At least up until no<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-239 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sago.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sago.jpg 600w, https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sago-300x140.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>w.<\/p>\n<p>With the Trump administration blaming safety and environmental regulations for killing the coal industry, and \u00a0threatening to &#8220;dismantle the administrative state&#8221; &#8212; translated as dismantling the protections that working people have earned over the past century &#8212; one might think that its time for states to step up and play a stronger role in mine safety. But West Virginia and Kentucky seem to be headed in the exact opposite direction.<\/p>\n<p>As the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/coal-country-republicans-state-mine-inspections_us_58c85cade4b022994fa2eeca?\">Huffington Post<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">A bill approved by Kentucky lawmakers Tuesday would cut back the number of state inspections of coal mines per year. It would allow the state\u2019s Department of Natural Resources to substitute some of those safety inspections with what\u2019s known as safety analyses. Conveniently for coal operators, the analyses do not pose the threat of citations and fines. The measure also slashes the number of required electrical inspections from two to one.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cIt\u2019s really infuriating. It really decimates the mine safety agency,\u201d said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety expert and Kentucky-based lawyer who represents miners.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in neighboring West Virginia, <em>Charleston Gazette Mail<\/em> reporter Ken Ward Jr.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wvgazettemail.com\/news-politics\/20170314\/wv-senate-bill-eliminates-mine-safety-enforcement\">reports<\/a>, \u201cbreathtaking\u201d new legislation has been introduced that would drastically change the states mine safety law:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">State safety inspectors wouldn\u2019t inspect West Virginia\u2019s coal mines anymore. They would conduct \u201ccompliance visits and education.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Violations of health and safety standards wouldn\u2019t produce state citations and fines, either. Mine operators would receive \u201ccompliance assistance visit notices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">And West Virginia regulators wouldn\u2019t have authority to write safety and health regulations. Instead, they could only \u201cadopt policies &#8230; [for] improving compliance assistance\u201d in the state\u2019s mines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In addition, the requirement for four inspections every year for each underground coal mine would be reduced to one compliance assistance visit for each of those mines.<\/p>\n<p>Ward writes that only if inspectors identified an &#8220;imminent danger&#8221; would they be able issue to\u00a0notices of violation or levy fines for mine operators or coal companies for any safety hazards. Meanwhile, the bill also emphasizes a &#8220;behavioral safety&#8221; focus where instead of correcting unsafe working conditions, employers focus on worker behavior. &#8220;The bill would maintain and encourage the use of \u201cindividual personal assessments,\u201d which target specific mine employees \u2014 rather than mine operators or coal companies \u2014 for violations, fines and, possibly, revocation of certifications or licenses needed to work in the industry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former MSHA director Davit McAteer \u00a0noted that<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It is shocking that, after all these years and the numbers of West Virginians who have died in the mines, for the state to even consider this. The state needs to be involved in making sure we are protecting our citizens. This should be one of the primary goals of the state government.<\/p>\n<p>McAteer also pointed out that that West Virginia led the nation in coal-mining deaths last year and has had two deaths already in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>__________<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tony.oppegard\">Tony Oppegard<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wvgazettemail.com\/coaltattoo\/\">Ken Ward<\/a> for alerting me to these troubling developments.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you think coal mining, your think West Virginia and Kentucky. And when you think coal mine disasters, you think West Virginia and Kentucky. Traditionally, West Virginia and Kentucky have taken a special interest in the safety of their miners &#8212; to the extent that they both run their own mine safety enforcement programs that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,72,71],"tags":[73,74],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deconstructing","category-mine-safety","category-msha","tag-kentucky","tag-west-virginia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kentucky and West Virginia Move to Weaken Protections for Coal Miners - Confined Space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2017\/03\/15\/httpwp-mep8s1zu-3n\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kentucky and West Virginia Move to Weaken Protections for Coal Miners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you think coal mining, your think West Virginia and Kentucky. And when you think coal mine disasters, you think West Virginia and Kentucky. 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