Coal industry finds friends in D.C.
Christopher DrewWASHINGTON -- In 1997, as a top executive of a Utah mining company, David Lauriski proposed a measure that could allow some operators to let coal-dust levels rise substantially in mines. The plan went nowhere in the government.
Last year, it found enthusiastic backing from one government official -- Lauriski himself. Now head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, he revived the proposal despite objections by union officials and health experts that it could put miners at greater risk of black-lung disease.
The reintroduction of the coal dust measure came after the federal agency had abandoned a series of Clinton-era safety proposals favored by coal miners while embracing others favored by mine owners and operators.
The agency's effort to rewrite coal regulations is part of a broader push by the Bush administration to help an industry that has been out of favor in Washington. As a candidate four years ago, George W. Bush promised to expand energy supplies, in part by reviving coal's fortunes, particularly in Appalachia, where coal regions will also help decide how swing states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio vote this year.
The president has also made good on a 2000 campaign pledge to ease environmental restrictions that he said were threatening jobs in coal country. That promise led many West Virginia miners, who traditionally voted Democratic, to join coal operators in supporting Bush. It helped him win the state's five electoral votes, ultimately the margin of victory.
Safety and environmental regulations often shift with control of the White House, but the Bush administration's approach to coal mining has been a particularly potent example of the blend of politics and policy.
In addition to Lauriski, who spent 30 years in the coal industry at several companies, Bush tapped a handful of other industry executives and lobbyists to help oversee safety and environmental regulations.
In all, the mine safety agency has rescinded more than a half- dozen proposals intended to make coal miners' jobs safer, including steps to limit miners' exposure to toxic chemicals. One rule pushed by the agency would make it easier for companies to use diesel generators underground, which miners say could increase the risk of fire.
In an interview, Lauriski said the proposals that were canceled were unnecessary. He said the agency had instead concentrated on other measures "we believed were important to pursue."
He cited a revamping of evacuation procedures adopted after an explosion killed 13 miners in Alabama in 2001, and new requirements that workers be told about the presence and dangers of hazardous chemicals.
Lauriski said the coal dust measure would improve miners' health by encouraging the use of equipment to limit how much dust miners breathe.
The Bush administration's efforts to change the rules have led to battles with labor unions and environmentalists. Congress and the courts have stepped in to temporarily block some of the initiatives, including the coal dust measure.
"They generally want to do whatever the industry wants," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., a member of the House Resources Committee who has been a leading critic of the administration's regulation of the industry. "You don't even have to change the law. You can change the regulations and don't do enforcement."
How any of these changes may affect the number of coal mining injuries and deaths is unclear. The rate of injuries has declined over the past 15 years. And a coal miner's odds of dying on the job are about the same as they were in the last years of the Clinton administration, government statistics show. The death tally, though, does not include black-lung disease, which still kills hundreds of miners every year.
But union leaders and some former agency officials see a direct link between the death rate and one specific measure that was eliminated. Before leaving office, the Clinton administration proposed updating technology to better protect workers from the two- story-high trucks that haul coal. Since that proposal was withdrawn in 2001, 16 miners have been killed in hauling accidents above ground.
The administration has also tried to make surface mining more economical by changing the rules to make it easier for coal companies to blast off the tops of mountains and dispose of tons of rubble in valleys and streams.
Environmentalists say such "mountaintop removal" has destroyed some of Appalachia's beauty and polluted water supplies. They contend that Bush appointees have shifted the government's focus to expediting approvals of new mining permits from limiting the size of the mines.
But White House and industry officials say there is a larger case to be made for coal, which fuels generators that produce half the nation's electricity. As natural gas prices have soared, it has become much cheaper to use coal. Although pollutants from burning coal are among the biggest contributors to acid rain and global warming, coal is also plentiful and secure, with domestic reserves that could last for 230 years.
James L. Connaughton, the chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, said the changes in the mountaintop mining rules were "all part of the broader effort to sustain coal as a critical part of the nation's energy mix, because it's affordable, it's reliable and it's domestically secure." Connaughton said the administration also was committed to improving environmental safeguards.
Critics say, however, that the administration's support for coal shows how it has catered to industries that have contributed heavily to Republicans.
"This is a results-oriented administration," said Joseph M. Lovett, a lawyer for environmental groups that have sued to block the mountaintop mining rules. "It knows who it wants to reward."
Over the last six years, coal companies have donated $9 million to federal political candidates and party organizations, and 90 percent has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Coal production has expanded in Western states, but in most Appalachian states, where miners earn relatively high wages, the number of jobs has stagnated or slipped since 2000. As a result, the battle over coal in crucial swing states is a wild card in this fall's election.
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