Coal law changes: Saving jobs, profits. Lives?

It’s understandable that ire and eyebrows were raised when what was labeled the Coal Jobs and Safety Act became law in West Virginia.

After all, West Virginia has had more coal mine deaths than any other state for six consecutive years.

West Virginia is where the worst coal mine tragedy in American history happened, in Monongah in 1907, when 362 officially -- but more than 500 according to the gravediggers and the late Father Everett Briggs – died in a town of then-3,000 people.

“I’m just absolutely shocked that this industry has this much control that for the first time in (recent) history the governor signs a bill into law that rolls back safety,” Del. Mike Caputo (D-Marion) told MetroNews.

The United Mine Workers Union and other labor groups have maintained Senate Bill 357 will put coal miners in danger especially when it comes to provisions about moving mining equipment.

West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney insists that the new law is not a safety rollback but a needed update to help coal mined in West Virginia become more competitive with coal mined in other states.

But it does lower West Virginia’s mining rules to federal levels, so there’s no argument that it’s a safety rollback.

It was the deaths of 3,242 American miners in 1907, including explosions 13 days apart in Monongah and Van Meter, Pennsylvania, that led to the creation of the Federal Mine Bureau that set up safety standards. Van Meter suffered 239 deaths.

It was just too horrible to ignore any more, so laws were passed to try to avoid such calamities.

While annual coal mining deaths numbered more than 1,000 a year in the early part of the 20th century, they decreased to an average of about 451 annual fatalities in the 1950s, and to 141 in the 1970s.

From 2006-2010, the yearly average number of fatalities in coal mining decreased to 35. In 2009, there were 18 recorded coal mining deaths, a record low number.

Fatalities increased to 48 in 2010, the worst yet since 1992, with Upper Big Branch Mine claiming 29.  In 2011, 21 coal miners died; in 2012, another 19 coal miners were killed.

In 2006, 47 miners were killed, including 12 at West Virginia's Sago Mine.

After Congress in 2006 passed sweeping safety legislation the deaths fell to 34 in 2007 and 30 in 2008.

The last time more than 100 people died in the nation's coal mines was 1984, when 125 miners were killed.

Over the past 13 years, West Virginia has the most coal mining deaths of any state, with 134.