Republican appropriators, including chair from coalfield, try to block new rules aimed at black lung

The House Appropriations Committee passed a spending bill yesterday with a provision that would prohibit the Mine Safety and Health Administration from issuing or enforcing new coal-dust regulations aimed at preventing the continued rise of black-lung disease among Central Appalachian coal miners. The move comes just days after the Labor Department said it would create a team of experts and lawyers to determine how best to increase regulation.

Recent investigative media reports from The Charleston Gazette, National Public Radio and the Center for Public Integrity found black lung is again on the rise in Central Appalachia -- Eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia -- and has quadrupled since the 1980s. Many new cases are showing up in surface miners.

Lexington Herald-Leader photo

Committee Chair Hal Rogers of Kentucky, left, whose 5th District has some of the highest rates of black lung, defended the panel's move. He said the proposed coal-dust rules rely on 15-year-old studies and questionable data, reports James Carroll, Washington correspondent of The Courier-Journal. “The health and safety of our coal miners should take precedent above all else, which is why these rules should be based on sound, up-to-date scientific evidence,” Rogers told the Louisville newspaper. (Read more)

Some experts say the current rate of black lung has reached "epidemic proportions," the Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. wrote on Coal Tattoo. He quotes California Democratic Rep. George Miller: "Republicans are sending a message that profits for their wealthy campaign contributors are more important than the lungs and lives of America's coal miners." West Virginia Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller said regulations to limit black lung are "essential, especially when we know that black lung rates are rising in a new generation of miners." (Read more)