Revived a rare approach to force mines
Two weeks after NPR and Mine Safety and Health News reported nearly $70 million in delinquent mine safety penalties at more than 4,000 coal and mineral mines, federal regulators suddenly revived a rare approach to force mines to pay.
They cited a delinquent coal mine for failing to pay $30,000 in overdue penalties and gave the mine's owner two weeks to pay. He didn't, so the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) shut down the mine. Within 40 minutes, mine officials agreed to a payment plan and the mine reopened.
It sounds like a straightforward and tough response, but it might not stand up to legal scrutiny. Federal law doesn't give MSHA the authority to shut down mines simply because they haven't paid their safety penalties. But the agency can force a mine to fix safety violations. In this case, the failure to pay penalties is considered an unfixed violation.
"The operator in this particular case did not challenge that legally. Somebody's going to," says Larry Grayson, a mine safety expert at Penn State University, and a consultant to industry and Congress.
"And then that's going to protract the amount of time it's going to take to resolve the issues," Grayson, a former mine superintendent, adds.