A senior coal company executive on Wednesday lambasted U.S. lawmakers for proposing caps on emissions blamed for global warming, saying the Democrats were out to destroy America’s coal industry.
Robert Murray, chairman, president and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., also blasted the federal government’s mine safety agency for “outrageous” new fines that he warned could [...]

Following a year highlighted by the passage of landmark mine-safety legislation at both the state and federal levels, and 16 months removed from two catastrophic accidents that killed 14 West Virginia miners, the International Mining Health and Safety Symposium returns to the Ohio Valley later this month to build on the progress and momentum of [...]

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said this week it has finalized a rule that increases fines for all safety violations.
“MSHA has structured the final rule so that higher penalties will induce operators to prevent and correct violations and be more proactive in their overall approach to miner safety and health, as well as [...]

Because of high production costs and weak coal prices, International Coal Group (ICO) has idled the Sago Mine where 12 men died in a methane gas explosion last year.
Spokesman Ira Gamm described Monday’s shutdown as a purely business decision. “No other factors are involved,” Gamm said Wednesday. “This was a business decision, part of our [...]

WASHINGTON - More than a year after the Sago mine explosion that killed 12 miners, protections for miners who get trapped underground have not yet been implemented, the United Mine Workers president said Wednesday.
UMW President Cecil Roberts testified during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in which senators questioned Richard Stickler, head of the nation’s mine [...]

Underground coal mines must provide up to four days of breathable air to keep miners alive in emergencies such as an explosion or a tunnel collapse, federal regulators announced Thursday.
A law enacted last year after a string of deadly accidents, including the deaths of 12 miners at the Sago Mine in January 2006, required mine [...]

With two recent mining deaths underscoring the dangers of the coal industry, the state’s mine safety chief asked lawmakers to increase his budget by $4.3 million for salaries, training, added staff and rescue gear.
The request Thursday by Director Ron Wooten of the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training is part of Gov. Joe Manchin’s [...]

A state agency recommended Thursday that coal mine operators take steps to curtail lightning damage, a year after 12 miners died because of an explosion believed to have been triggered by a storm.
The recommendations are the first public proposal for lightning protection by the state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training since it determined [...]

_Jan. 2 Sago Mine explosion results in 12 deaths
_Jan. 9 West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin appoints former federal Mine Safety and Health Administration director J. Davitt McAteer to conduct special Sago investigation. New Mexico conducts unscheduled inspection of its only underground mine on orders by Gov. Bill Richardson.
_Jan. 19 Two miners die in fire at [...]

Many of the safety measures state legislatures and Congress rushed to adopt to protect the 46,000 people working in the nation’s underground coal mines after the Jan. 2. Sago Mine explosion have yet to take effect.
There are still no rescue chambers or wireless tracking and communications equipment in the country’s 606 underground coal mines, and [...]