Bruce Watzman, vice president of safety, health and human resources for the National Mining Association, said the regulatory agenda the Bush administration inherited "had grown stale and old." Some of the proposals, he noted, like one requiring flame-resistant conveyor belts, were superseded by new technology. Other problems, like bulldozers sinking into piles of coal, were addressed by design changes to the machines.
One of the new Bush rules, Watzman said, formally approved ventilation systems that the agency was already granting to companies through petitions. In some cases, the new rules were made possible by better air monitoring in the mines, which can quickly signal when there is a problem, he said.
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Some of the disagreements spilled over into court and the Congress.
The Mine Workers challenged in court the agency's decision not to pursue the air quality rule, for example. The agency responded that comments on the rule were 12 years old, that MSHA had changed its priorities, and that the rule might conflict with another court decision concerning a similar Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule.
In February, the federal court of appeals for the D.C. circuit ruled the agency did not have an adequate explanation for withdrawing the rule and told it to try again. The union also is challenging the new conveyor belt ventilation rule in court.
Another controversy erupted over the agency's withdrawal of a Clinton-era rule addressing coal dust, which causes black lung disease and has killed thousands of miners.
Lauriski, formerly general manager of Energy West Mining Co. in Utah, one of the largest underground coal producers, offered a replacement rule. It would have allowed an increase in coal dust, to be offset by miners wearing protective breathing helmets, rather than investing in better ventilation and water to tamp down the dust.
The miners took their objections to Congress, where Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) took up their cause. After a Senate hearing and passage of an amendment to an appropriations bill last summer, the agency was told to re-propose the rule and build it around the use of personal dust monitors, new technology being developed in an industry-union partnership to give continuous read-outs of dust levels.
"The whole [administration] proposal was aimed at having miners wear these Star Wars helmets and breathe through that," which the miners opposed, a Rahall spokesman said.
There has also been disagreement over the number of mine deaths. Fatalities in coal mines dropped to 23 this year, from 30 last year and 42 in 2001. Deaths at all mines decreased to 44 this year, from 56 last year and 72 in 2001. Injuries at mines also have been steadily decreasing.
Critics said the numbers don't count the 1,000 or so miners who die each year from black lung disease. And even though career employees decide which fatalities should be "charged" to the annual death tally, the union complained in an April letter to Lauriski that some fatal accidents may not be counted because they are considered outside the definition of a "mining site."
The union has questioned whether two deaths related to clearing timber and vegetation at mines were omitted from the annual tally. The MSHA official said he is not aware of any changes.
Suzanne Bohnert, a spokeswoman for the agency, was quoted in the trade press last spring as saying fatalities related to logging are counted by OSHA, not her agency. Asked about that issue this week, she said in an e-mail: "Regarding the timbering and logging operations, the question is still under review."
