Hi--I am writing a masters paper and have a few questions if the coal miners are willing to participate--My father has been in the mines since 1978 and I lost my brother in the mines. You can give me your name and where you work and how long you been in mines but I can name you anonymous if you want. Thank you in advance--and you can send as private message also.

Here's questions:

to the Coal Miners:

1. How do you feel about your Emergency Response Drills and do you feel that you are adequately equipped?

2. How can Coal Mining Companies provide a safer and healthier work environment for you?

3. Have you seen any type of safety hazards during your tenor that could have been prevented, if some type of safety regualtion was in place?

4. How do you feel if President Obama closes the Coal Mines, how would it directly affect you, family, and community?

5. How do you feel about Mine Inspectors jobs? Are they thourough in their inspection? too pickyy? Explain?

6. Since you been in the Coal Mining Industry, what kind of safety rules and regulations have been implemented over the years?


Again thanks for any help!!

i'm sorry but that joker won't be closing anything

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Wow the answer to all of that is a paper in itself.

Have you ever been in a coal mine?

Why did you chose to do a master paper on coal mines?

I assume the paper will be published.

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

For the record, I have only been in two underground mines, both tours. One in California and the Coal mine Tour in Beckley, WVa. But, some of these questions are easy to answer. I'm also very opinionated.

I will give bamagurl the benefit of the doubt.





No amount of emergency equipment is enough, with 23 years on a VFD, there is always another tool that is needed in these situations. It is hardly a fair question to ask. " This cost x, isn't a life worth x?




Assuming we are talking underground. Roof Control and Ventilation cover the major issues. There is only so much that can be done and stay underground. Mountain Top removal solves those issues, but brings to the public another. A lot could be done if coal was $500.00 a ton, industry wide. But, how much do you want to pay for electricity?




The only thing regulations do is level the playing field for all mines. Not completely a bad thing. It prevents bad operators from undercutting honest operators.

Regulations are almost always with good intent. But it is very hard to regulate safety. The devil is in the details. At best, they give an easy out to place blame after an accident. Regulation 1465 a (3) c: Mine Operators shall have in place an approved Roof Control Plan, which will detail ways to secure the overlaying geology and prevent collapse. Mine XY& Z has a roof fall,

MSHA comes in a slams XY&Z for violation of 1465 a (3) c.

yea id love to help but an anthracite miners answers to those questions is probably not what youre looking for and like pete said you can write a paper on each one of those questions! but here ya go.....

1. How do you feel about your Emergency Response Drills and do you feel that you are adequately equipped?

no one can be totally equipped for every kind of emergency. we have a great mine rescue team that can respond to any disaster and deal with it in a short time.


2. How can Coal Mining Companies provide a safer and healthier work environment for you?

stop trying to make us run our mines like bituminous mines. seperate bituminous and anthracite mine laws like there was 50 years ago.

3. Have you seen any type of safety hazards during your tenor that could have been prevented, if some type of safety regualtion was in place?

no.

4. How do you feel if President Obama closes the Coal Mines, how would it directly affect you, family, and community?

ha, now thats a funny one. coal mining has been around for almost 200 years and it will be around for another 200.

5. How do you feel about Mine Inspectors jobs? Are they thourough in their inspection? too pickyy? Explain?

some are real good, some are nitpickers and some are just plain ruthless.

6. Since you been in the Coal Mining Industry, what kind of safety rules and regulations have been implemented over the years?

most of the new safety laws are a joke written by lawyers so people wont get sued. mining is just as safe or dangerous as it was years ago. you are responsible for your safety down there. keep a good head on your shoulders and work with competent people. as far as dangers go, danger lies all around not just in coal mines.

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does obama even have the authority to be able to close mines? i know that hed never get it through congerss though, if thats what hed have to do.

While partially off topic, that was one of Obama's campaign promises, making operating using coal so expensive that it would bankrupt the coal industry.

As for the questions, mining is not my place of employment, and thus I am not qualified to answer these.

Miner Greg

i will guarantee you he will not close any coal mines!

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Some one like my rants and sent me a PM.




To answer navy captain. NO, He does not have authority to demand any private industry to cease legal activities. Congress could not directly band them either. They do not have authority to make such a law.

The only thing they could do is tax it out of exsistence, or regulate it out. Here is where a plug goes for "Hard Coal"

To bamagurl's question, it is hardly a reasonable question. In many coal mining regions, mining is the only jobs there are. In the Eastern Coal fields the land is not suitable for agriculture, the roads and infrastructure is not there to allow significant industry. And there aren't many manufacturing jobs that have not been sent our of the country or are at risk.

The effects of closing an entire industry would be devastating to the maximum, on the individuals and communities. It would create financial ruin not just for the miners, mining companies, but for non-mine people as well.

For example, Mr. and Mrs Smith, have lived their entire lives in mine town. But have never worked in the mine industry. They are ready to retire and downsize. Like many folks their house is a major portion of their life's savings.

If the local economy tanks because the mine closes, the value of their house will tank too.



Someone else commented that they vary in their enforcement. I would agree, that is just the normal variation in people. And I'm sure some of the variation is a result of inspectors knowing which mines are making a good faith effort to comply and which are trying to cut corners.

Any government regulation is something of a witchhunt. And the folks who enforce the regs are under a certain pressure to write citations. And inspector who comes back to the office and never writes a citation is going to be suspect for being lax..

And generally government regs are so tight and conplex that no matter how hard a company tries to comply, somewhere there will be a fault.




I will skip the last one. It is out of my field to comment there.


Mining is just a business, where the operator be he an individual or a mega-corp is in it for the profit. It is the only reason to be in business. It is exactly the same reason why most folks get out of bed on Monday morning, the paycheck.

Now the operator has a certain moral obligation to his employees to negate as much as possible safety and health concerns. But, those have to be balanced with the operating margins of the market place and the industry.

It really burns me when I hear MSHA or The UMWA screech that we need safer mines and the operators are painted as greedy, ruthless demons.

If the UMWA, knows how to operate a completely safe and healthy mine, they have a moral obligation to open a trial mine and demonstrate to the industry that it can be done. And for that matter so should MSHA.

I really like a quote by Homer Hickam in "The Coalwood Way" . Commenting about union miners who worked off days in independent mines where they were more in tune with the profitability.

" They will spend 8 hours a day complaining about safety. Then spend all weekend in an independent mine holding up the roof with one hand, while digging coal with the other."

Doug your alright! I sent bamagirl a pm outlining some of my opinions on these questions but I guess I should post some too.

First off here in the Anthracite we have a first class mine rescue team. Our guys and especialy the head of deep mine safety in Tremont, Paul Wagner give 150% time and time again. It does hurt our small operators to have a man or two tied up with the rescue team but they do it anyway in a effort to make MSHA happy.

As far as if the industry was to go away tomorrow I'd be a very unhappy camper to say the least. Not only would I be out of a job I'd be out of a job that I absolutely love doing. Not many people today have a true love for what they do but a good many of the guys in the coal buisness do and it would be a damn shame to lose that.

And as far as the inspectors go I don't put the blame to much on them for the extreme over enforcement of the laws in the Anthracite. I blame there boss John Kuzar. He is the one I blame directly for the loss of approx 30 deep mines since 2001. On a positive note MSHA is starting to pull a lot of the same B.S. in the bitty mines that they have been pulling for the last 8 years in District 1. I can only hope that they really screw things up there like they did here. Than the feds will have to listen, not to the operators, but to the American public. Why? Because electricity will not be affordable anymore. Thank you MSHA and the UMWA!

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"We don't look for any money all we look for is a little help and the only help we get is for the government to shut us down and if you go to the gas station and buy the gas you'll see why..........................you'll see why"

So you know a little more about me--I am pursueing my masters degree in Homeland Security and emergency/disaster mangement. I retire in a few years and hoping to pursue a career in this area. I am in the military and getting ready deploy again.

Thank you to everyone who has replied and keep the opinions coming--I may have to write another paper in relation to this one.

I am from Kentucky and with family in the mines--this holds a personal interest also. and FYI--bamagurl is my g/f--she set up forum for me because I am in the process of PCSing before I deploy. HOOAH!!

All opinions are welcome and appreciated!

And you can also email me

donaldwagers34@yahoo.com


Thank you to everyone!!

To add to what Mike said, there's a shirt that's popular here in the region that says, "American Fuel for American Workers," or something to that effect.
That says it all, IMO.

Take care when you deploy.
Sound like a Marine, eh?
Semper Fi.


~Shana

Consol Energy

COAL

AMERICA'S ON SWITCH

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

oh god here we go again.......

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