W.Va. coal-industry group opposes Obama strategy to end black-lung disease

The Obama administration's plan to end black-lung disease was met with criticism from the West Virgina coal industry during the first public hearing on the proposal. No one disputed the need for stronger efforts to eradicate black lung, but some faulted the strategy, Taylor Kuykendall of The Register-Herald in Beckley reports.

"We strongly object to the proposal in its current form," Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He said it was "fraught with technical and operational impracticalities, misapplication of dust control technologies" and "relies on an inappropriate, convoluted or uneven enforcement scheme." Hamiltion also said he was concerned that the proposal circumvented Congress and its efforts to regulate mine safety and eradicate black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis. The Mine Safety and Health Administration's actions "represent a departure from the cooperative approach deemed necessary to eradicate CWP from within our industry," Hamilton said.

Hamilton lumped the black lung proposal, which would cut the allowable level of respirable coal dust in mines by half, with environmental regulations that he called the Obama administration's attack on the coal industry. "We would hope that this rule, as proposed, is not part of that strategy, as some submit that it clearly is," Hamilton said.

The proposal did receive some support at the meeting. Joe Massie, retired coal miner and president of the National Black Lung Association, and the Fayette County Black Lung Association support any changes MSHA can make to prevent miners from getting black lung, Kuykendall writes. The meeting was held at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, W.Va. Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety, said the proposal would "significantly improve health protections for underground and surface coal miners." (Read more)