By Ronnie Ellis

March 23, 2017 - In 2006, before a perceived “war on coal,” before most Kentuckians had heard of Barack Obama, there were 16 casualties in the Kentucky coal fields — five at Darby Mine in Harlan County as a result of a methane gas explosion.

So in 2007 Kentucky lawmakers passed legislation that went beyond federal regulations to require four complete underground mine inspections and two electrical inspections each year by the state.

Their resolve didn’t last when state revenues began to fall and the coal industry faltered under competition from cheaper fuels and increased environmental regulation.

Partly because of increased safety measures and partly because of the decrease in mining, mine fatalities in Kentucky plunged from 16 in 2006 to two last year, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration or MSHA.

The last two biennial budgets funded only four inspections annually as lawmakers cited fewer operating mines and fewer fatal accidents. This year – at the urging of the state Cabinet for Energy and Environment (EEC) and the coal industry – lawmakers passed House Bill 384 that permanently reduces the number of inspections to four.

It also allows EEC Secretary Charles Snavely, at his discretion, to replace three physical inspections with mine safety analysis or compliance assistance inspections — observing miner behavior and suggesting safety improvements. The fourth must be a full electrical inspection.

The idea, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Robert Benvenuti, R-Lexington, is to avoid duplication of existing federal inspections while focusing on a major cause of accidents — miner behavior.

The measure was signed into law this week by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a frequent critic of what he views as federal interference in the coal industry.

Mine safety advocate Tony Oppegard, a former MSHA official and state inspector who is now a private attorney who represents miners in labor disputes, called blaming miners for accidents “a red herring.”

“What causes mine accidents is mine operators cutting corners,” Oppegard said. “Compliance assistance is what the coal industry wants. It’s code for saying miners are stupid when the fact is when miners violate the law, it’s because they’ve been told they have to.”

Steve Earle, United Mine Workers of America District 12 Vice President, thinks the bill was written by the coal industry.

While there aren’t any union mines operating presently in Kentucky, Earle often talks to active non-union miners. He said they routinely tell him their employers frequently remind them how many applicants they have on file for historically scarce numbers of mining jobs.

“Miners are doing exactly what operators are telling them to do,” Earle said. “And if they don’t do it, they won’t have a job.”

Benvenuti represents a district with no coal mines. He said cabinet officials suggested the bill to him, citing the internal cabinet data indicating 94 percent of accidents it investigates are due to human error — not the physical mine conditions.

He said the legislation does not prevent safety analysis inspectors from citing improper conditions they observe while on the mine site. And it allows EEC Sec. Snavely to reinstitute physical inspections should the federal government pull back on its inspections, something that could happen if Congress approves President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut funding for the Labor Department by 20 percent.

Snavely said he’s committed to do that — if he has the manpower and money.  He said the Division of Mine Safety has seen its budget cut by millions since 2007 and has gone from 172 employees to 76 — with only 56 inspectors.

Consequently, Snavely said, it makes little sense to duplicate federal inspections, especially in light of fewer operating mines during a coal industry depression.

That’s more reason not to cut inspections, according to Oppegard.

“They don’t have a manpower problem,” he said. “There are only a fourth of the number of mines as there were four years ago. They could easily meet the (six inspection) mandate if they wanted to.”

Snavely counters that there are “more inspection days right now than there’ve ever been.” He said state and federal inspectors “are tripping over each other. It’s not productive when we could be doing something the federal government is not doing.”

Snavely, who worked for major coal companies before his appointment by Bevin, said companies thath have improved their safety records have done so by concentrating on worker behavior.

But Butch Oldham, chairman of the state Mining Board which reviews miner certification disputes, doesn’t think the new approach “is going to enhance mine safety. If you’re a miner, would you rather have (an inspector) who saw something dangerous shut it down or just say, ‘Hey buddy, you need to stop doing that?’”

Besides, said Earle, the UMWA official, even if fewer miners are working underground, those who are remain as much at risk as ever.

“I’ve always said the safest day these miners have is the day when inspectors are in the mines,” Earle said. “Every safety law that’s ever been written – including the one in 2007 we worked so hard to pass – is written in the blood of miners.”