Thursday last week various industry leaders testified at a two-hour public hearing that it was unfair that different fines would be imposed on smaller coal companies versus larger ones.
Under the Miner Act, MSHA plans to increase mine operator fines in an attempt to induce them to improve safety and health programs.
According to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report, American Energy Corp spokesman Ron Van Horne said: "Large operations are inherently safer. The series of disasters that led to the MINER Act were at smaller mines.
“The small mines should be judged the same as the large mines ... whether it puts them out of business or not," he said.
Union officials agreed.
“We would agree there is a great disparity between large and small mines. The baseline fine should always be the same. If they can't pay it, they should go out of business," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported UMW safety official Tim Baker saying.
MSHA originally published the proposed rule in early September in the Federal Register to raise civil penalties for violations of the Mine Safety and Health Act.
“We anticipate that these stronger penalties will induce mine operators to improve their safety and health programs, which prevent hazards from endangering the safety of America's miners in the first place," MSHA acting administrator David Dye said at the time.
Fines assessed in 2005 would have been nearly tripled had the proposed penalty structure been in effect. In its economic analysis, MSHA estimates that most mine operators will improve compliance efforts as a result of the proposal, which would ultimately reduce the number of violations cited and the total fines assessed.
The proposed rule by MSHA incorporates the MINER Act provision that imposes a maximum penalty of $US220,000 for flagrant violations. MSHA's proposed rule also includes a minimum penalty of $2000 for unwarrantable failure violations, and $4000 for repeated similar violations.
The proposal would also establish a penalty of $5000 to $60,000 for operators that fail to notify MSHA within 15 minutes of a death, injury or entrapment with reasonable risk of death at a mine.
Under the proposal, MSHA would use a formula system for processing most violations; however, penalty amounts would increase. MSHA has restructured the proposed schedule to reflect higher penalties for mine operators that have a history of repeated violations of the same standard.
Public hearings have been held at Virginia, Alabama, Utah, Missouri, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
