Tagged: coal

GOP members on the U.S. House Appropriations committee have inserted language into a bill to block a new Mine Safety and Health Department initiative to reduce occurrences of black lung disease--or coal workers' pneumoconiosis.

NPR's Howard Berkes reported on the new language this morning on NPR's news blog The Two Way:

The state Energy and Environment Cabinet is in court this morning, along with lawyers representing two coal companies and environmental groups. The parties disagree about the amount of money the coal companies should pay for water pollution.

The leading Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce says the federal government doesn’t have enough tools to keep coal miners safe.

State government inspectors have been using aerial surveillance to watch coal operators in central Appalachia.

Helicopter flights have cost The Kentucky Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement more than $477,000 over the past four years, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

News of the flyovers surprised mining industry leaders, including Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett, who protested the covert nature of the inspections and questioned their effectiveness.

A Kentucky coal company has been fined nearly $600,000 by the federal government, stemming from violations that directly contributed to the death of a miner last year.

In June 2011, David Partin was killed at the Manalapan Mining Company’s P-1 Mine in Harlan County. A large section of rock fell from the coal mine’s wall, and knocked him into a dolly.