"Injury rates have more than doubled at five West Virginia coal mines acquired by Murray Energy Corp. in 2013 . . . as the firm sharply increased the amount of coal produced per man-hour, Richard Valdmanis and Valerie Volcovici report for Reuters. "The causes of the increase in injuries remain unknown and could include a host of factors in the complex business of underground coal mining. . . . Murray spokesman Cody Nett said that productivity has no correlation to injury rates."
Murray is the nation’s largest underground coal operator, with about 6,000 employees. It bought the five mines from Consol Energy, formerly Consolidation Coal, which is now out of the coal business. "The injury rate at the five mines averaged 6.35 per 200,000 work hours last year, up from 2.79 in 2013," the last year Consol operated them," Reuters reports.
Nett, the company spokesman, "said the injury rate at the former Consol mines was inflated by false claims from workers who took time off for other reasons. He also attributed the doubling of injury rates since Murray acquired the mines to under-reporting by the previous owner during the preceding years," which MSHA disputed. "Regulators did cite Consol for under-reporting in a 2013 audit. But MSHA later revised the company’s data to include injuries that Consol initially failed to properly report, said MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere." Nett said there was no such revision.
West Virginia mine-safety expert Davitt McAteer, a former MSHA director, told Reuters, “Those particular mines are decades old, meaning miners are having to work deeper, more complicated coal seams, with aging equipment and infrastructure,” making the mines more dangerous. Reuters notes, "The company’s CEO, Robert Murray, is among the coal sector’s most vocal advocates for rollbacks of environmental and safety oversight."
Murray is the nation’s largest underground coal operator, with about 6,000 employees. It bought the five mines from Consol Energy, formerly Consolidation Coal, which is now out of the coal business. "The injury rate at the five mines averaged 6.35 per 200,000 work hours last year, up from 2.79 in 2013," the last year Consol operated them," Reuters reports.
"That’s the highest injury rate for the group in a decade and 70 percent above the national average for underground mines," based on data from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. "At the same time, coal output per man-hour at the five mines rose nearly 50 percent since 2013 to 5.7 tons in 2017, according to MSHA figures. By comparison, the industry average in 2015 - the last year for which industry-wide data is available - was 3.4 tons per man-hour."
Nett, the company spokesman, "said the injury rate at the former Consol mines was inflated by false claims from workers who took time off for other reasons. He also attributed the doubling of injury rates since Murray acquired the mines to under-reporting by the previous owner during the preceding years," which MSHA disputed. "Regulators did cite Consol for under-reporting in a 2013 audit. But MSHA later revised the company’s data to include injuries that Consol initially failed to properly report, said MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere." Nett said there was no such revision.
West Virginia mine-safety expert Davitt McAteer, a former MSHA director, told Reuters, “Those particular mines are decades old, meaning miners are having to work deeper, more complicated coal seams, with aging equipment and infrastructure,” making the mines more dangerous. Reuters notes, "The company’s CEO, Robert Murray, is among the coal sector’s most vocal advocates for rollbacks of environmental and safety oversight."
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