Things to know about the MSHA and the coal industry

The U S Mine Safety and Healthcare Administration is among the federal agencies selected for spending cuts by the Department of Governing body Efficiency Nearly three dozen MSHA offices would have their leases terminated if the plans come to fruition MSHA is responsible for enforcing U S mine safety laws DOGE was created by President Donald Trump and is run by Elon Musk Where are the MSHA offices being considered for closure According to the DOGE website MSHA offices in states have been targeted for closure This includes seven in Kentucky which would leave the fifth-leading coal producing state with just two MSHA facilities There also are four offices slated to close in Pennsylvania two apiece in California Nevada New York Ohio Texas and West Virginia and one each in Alabama Arizona Colorado Illinois Indiana Minnesota New Hampshire Oregon South Dakota Tennessee and Wyoming Are other mining offices involved Also under consideration for closure are the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement facilities in Lexington Kentucky and Tulsa Oklahoma shrinking the national footprint of an agency created during the Carter administration to restore land damaged by strip mining and reclaim abandoned and damaged minelands Prospective savings Ending the MSHA leases is projected to save million It s unclear whether inspectors positions and other jobs from those offices would be moved to other facilities MSHA responsibilities MSHA was created by Congress within the Labor Department in in part because state inspectors were seen as too close to the industry to force coal companies to take the sometimes costly moves necessary to protect miners MSHA is required to inspect each underground mine quarterly and each surface mine twice a year Agency inspectors are supposed to check every working section of a mine They examine electrical and ventilation systems that protect miners from deadly black lung malady inspect impoundment dams and new roof bolts and make sure mining equipment is safe announced Jack Spadaro a longtime mine safety investigator and environmental specialist who worked for MSHA Mining fatalities over the past four decades have dropped significantly in large part because of the dramatic decline in coal production But the proposed DOGE cuts would require MSHA inspectors to journey farther to get to a mine and Spadaro mentioned that could lead to less thorough inspections A review last month of publicly available facts by the Appalachian Citizens Law Center indicates that nearly wellbeing and safety inspections were conducted from the beginning of through February by staff at MSHA offices in the facilities on the chopping block MSHA which also oversees metal and nonmetal mines already is understaffed Over the past decade it has seen a reduction in total staff including of enforcement staff in general and of enforcement staff for coal mines the law center mentioned Coal facts and figures The coal industry has been in decline as utilities have installed more renewable strength and converted coal-fired plants to be fueled by cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas U S coal production was at billion tons in and fell to million tons by the latest year available according to the U S Strength Information Administration It has been in a long steep decline for decades Coal industry deaths were in the hundreds throughout the s and s After MSHA was created deaths steadily decreased then dropped even further in the last decade as a growing number of mining companies shut down and thousands of jobs were eliminated There have been or fewer deaths in each of the past five years according to MSHA Coal employment rebounded from to rising to West Virginia employed the greater part miners at followed by Kentucky at About half of the nation s coal mines are located in West Virginia and Kentucky Despite having just mines Wyoming was the highest-producing coal state due to mechanization