Gazette photo by Chip Ellis
Massey Energy today is continuing its efforts to shift public focus to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, with this press release calling for MSHA to retract statements made in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article on the ongoing dispute over the use of scrubbers in Massey mines.
We had our own story on this issue earlier this week, and the bottom line seemed to be that, even with scrubbers, Massey was not complying with the limits for coal-dust exposure in its underground mines.
Well, next week, Massey CEO Don Blankenship will get a chance to have his say in Washington. Blankenship is schedule to testify to Congress for the first time since the April 5 explosion that killed 29 workers at his company’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County.
Blankenship is among the witnesses listed for a hearing on Thursday before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that will focus on the need to provide additional funding for coal-mine safety.
If that’s not enough — Blankenship is listed to testify on the same panel as United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts … other witnesses include MSHA chief Joe Main, Department of Labor Solicitor M. Patricia Smith, NIOSH Director John Howard, and Mary Lu Jordan, chairwoman of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
The hearing was announced Friday by Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
Sen. Harkin said:
The entire nation mourned the recent loss of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. As Chairman of the HELP Committee, I am examining possible legislation that would make a number of policy changes in the area of mine safety. But additional Federal appropriations are also needed to help prevent similar disasters, particularly when it comes to reducing the backlog of appeals at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Senator Byrd requested this important hearing and I am happy to examine this critical area.
And Sen. Byrd added:
I would like to thank Chairman Harkin, a fellow son of a coal miner, for agreeing to hold this very important hearing at my request. This is a good beginning to a process that I hope will lead to substantial and long-overdue changes. We must examine the level of resources allocated to our mine regulatory agencies to ensure that, in this day and age, tragedies like the one at Upper Big Branch mine are prevented in the future.
Subscribe to the Coal Tattoo
As the old saying goes, Give a man enough rope … After watching outtakes of the Blankenship-Kennedy debate, this one should be at least as entertaining, although I doubt anything of real substance will be said.
I hope the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee invites a representative from the EPA’s Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP) that is presently a voluntary program whose goal is to reduce methane emissions from coal mining activities. Methane in coal mining needs to be managed for profit and to protect the planet from additional greenhouse gas (GHG).
http://www.epa.gov/cmop
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/newsroom/international.html
http://www.methanetomarkets.org/successstories.aspx
http://www.iea.org/publications/free_new_Desc.asp?PUBS_ID=2085
Coal Mine Methane in China: A Budding Asset with the Potential to Bloom-
The USA helped build the largest coal mine methane management program in the world in China! How about doing the same thing here? It will create jobs and income. Also: November 5, 2009 – USTDA Promotes Coal Mine Methane in India. The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced September 28, 2009 that it awarded a grant to reduce methane emissions by capturing coal bed methane and coal mine methane (CBM/CMM) to produce energy. The $524,819 award was to AES (India) Private Limited (AES India) to fund a feasibility study on a proposal to capture and use CBM/CMM from the company’s coal mine block in Chhattisgarh, India.
Global Coal Usage to Increase 55% by 2025 (Barron’s 2009).
June 17, 2009 – former President Yushchenko Signed into Law Ukraine Coal Mine Methane Legislation. According to Interfax-Ukraine, the profit of Ukrainian enterprises obtained from the production and use of coal deposit gas (methane) will be exempt from taxation January 1, 2010 through January 1, 2020. I’m not sure if this is in effect but it is a good example for US coal companies like Massey Energy who operate gassy mines.
Contact me: coallawreview@yahoo.com