An upstate New York court last week accepted a mine manager’s guilty plea to manslaughter in the second degree over the death of a worker in 2022. According to prosecutors, Anthony Valente, a mine manager at a Grafton limestone quarry, …
The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Labor is urging the government’s mine safety agency to tighten restrictions on a dangerous substance that is inhaled by coal miners. A report from the inspector general’s office said the Mine Safety …
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced Wednesday a global settlement with Worcester Sand and Gravel Company Inc., of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, to resolve citations and orders in three separate dockets. An administrative law judge with …
More than a dozen coal companies, including a unit of Patriot Coal Corp., challenged a new federal mine-safety regulation aimed at reducing black lung disease, with some arguing the objectives are unattainable. The companies today asked for a review of …
Federal regulators are urging U.S. coal companies to refocus on health and safety regulations after three fatalities in three days. The deaths in occurred last week amid the ongoing government shutdown. In West Virginia, a miner was struck in the …
With five coal mining fatalities in West Virginia so far this year, Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall is renewing his push for tougher federal laws. He and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., are co-sponsoring a new version of legislation that’s languished …
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Wednesday asked coal companies to halt production for an hour to review safety procedures following the state’s fourth mining fatality in two weeks and the sixth since November. Tomblin signed an executive order …
Labor Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced a final rule to strengthen safety in the nation’s most dangerous mines. Solis said that the rule, which revises the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s pattern of violations regulation, seeks to ensure …
Federal inspectors must share the blame — and therefore face a lawsuit — for a 2006 West Virginia coal mine fire that killed two miners, a lawyer for their widows argued at the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. Lawyer Bruce …
The Mine Safety and Health Administration says it issued 254 citations, 19 orders and one safeguard during special inspections at West Virginia coal mines last month. Among those targeted was Argus Energy’s Deep Mine No. 8 in Wayne County, where …
