The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration held the first of a series of public hearings on its proposed “respirable dust” rule this past week in Beckley. Chris R. Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, presented the industry and Association viewpoint at the hearing. The Association’s testimony is shown at the end of Coal Bits
The hearing provided the opportunity to express concerns over MSHA not allowing machine mounted scrubbers to function as designed to mitigate coal dust at the point of generation and unnecessarily exposing miners to hazards associated with section equipment moves as the result of the Agency’s reluctance to approve extended-cut continuous mining plans. We urge all our members and the Friends of Coal to contact MSHA and our members of Congress and let them know the proposed rules are not the right prescription.