Tagged: Mine Safety and Health Administration

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 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.

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.

A lawyer has responded to two California representatives on behalf of three Kentucky mine operators.

In June, Congressmen George Miller and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey sent a letter to Jack Ealy and Ralph Napier, the president and vice president of K and D Mining, as well as John North of Jackrock, LLC. They wanted the mine operators to submit a plan to pay the $1.568 million currently owed to the federal government for mine safety violations.

A Pike County miner has died following an accident at the McCoy Elkhorn Coal Corporation's Mine No. 23 in Kimper. From the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing:

Preliminary reports indicate 33-year-old Farley Sargent was laying track when a rib roll occurred. A rib roll is when a portion of the coal pillar wall falls into the corridor.