Miners and politicians struggle with coal mining safety

By Andrea Hopkins

SYLVESTER, W., Virginia (Reuters) - After three years of training with Massey Coal's award-winning mine rescue team, Jeremy McClung, 28, has advice for regulators struggling to make America's coal mines safer.

"Don't let politicians who don't know anything about the industry make decisions about our lives in the coal mines," said McClung, one of a 10-member rescue team at Massey's Elk Run mine in the mountains of West Virginia.

With the August deaths of six coal miners and three rescuers at a mine in Utah fresh in mind, the U.S. Congress is considering new regulations that would require more rescue teams, equipment, oversight and training at America's 653 underground coal mines.

But as regulators come up with new safety measures, mine operators complain sweeping changes passed by Congress last year haven't even been implemented yet -- and technology being proposed by politicians, including locating devices and wireless communication, is not yet invented.

"The problem is that decisions are being made, much of it in reaction to some very sad tragedies, by people who, while well-intentioned ... aren't as well informed about the potential impact of their actions as we'd like them to be," said Elizabeth Chamberlin, vice president of safety and training at Massey Energy in Charleston, West Virginia.

Massey has estimated that the new federal mine safety rules could cost it $24 million (11.9 million pounds) in the next two years. In March, Massey was fined $1.5 million, the highest for mine safety violations, after two miners died in a fire at one of its West Virginia mines.

Still, it's hard to blame Congress for the sense of urgency. There were 24 coal mining fatalities in 2007, after 47 deaths in 2006. From 1997 to 2006, an average of 33 U.S. coal miners died each year in accidents, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Experts worry the death toll may only rise as coal companies undertake more dangerous projects in search of a dwindling supply of coal in a country that relies on the black rock for more than half of its electricity needs.