Opinion ID: 859134
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Federal Regulation of Mine Safety

Text: The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-164, superseded two prior pieces of mine legislation, the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 4 Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 (“the Coal Act”), Pub. L. No. 91-173, and the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act of 1966 (“the Metal Act”), Pub. L. No. 89-577. The 1977 Mine Safety Act covers all types of mines addressed by these prior acts. In passing the new Mine Safety Act, Congress acted to strengthen the government’s authority to regulate mines in response to a joint committee of Congress finding that after “ten years of enforcement of the Metal [A]ct, and six years of enforcement of the Coal Act . . . fatalities and disabling injuries in our nation’s mines are still unacceptably and unconscionably high.” S. Rep. No. 95-181, at 7 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3401, 3407. Recognizing “an urgent need to provide more effective means and measures for improving the working conditions and practices in the Nation’s coal or other mines in order to prevent death and serious physical harm, and in order to prevent occupational diseases originating in such mines,” Congress passed the 1977 Mine Safety Act to strengthen the govern- ment’s ability to ensure mine safety. 30 U.S.C. § 801(c). Congress found that the stronger Mine Safety Act was needed because earlier laws had proven too weak and mines still had appalling safety records. At the time the Mine Safety Act passed, an average of one miner died and sixty-six miners were injured each day, and the incidence of work-related injuries and illnesses for miners exceeded the “all-industry” rate at the time by about 14 percent. S. Rep. No. 95-181, at 4, 7, 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3404, 3407. The Mine Safety Act created the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (“MESA”), which has been Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 5 renamed the Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”). The Act gave MSHA broad authority to ensure the safety of mines, including the authority to inspect mines and collect records and reports, 30 U.S.C. § 813, to promulgate mandatory health and safety standards and rules, § 811, and to enforce safety standards and rules through citations and penalties, § 814. Most relevant here, section 813(a) authorizes MSHA to inspect and investigate mines, and section 813(h) imposes reporting and record-keeping requirements upon mine operators. Sections 813(a) and 813(h) provide the statutory basis for MSHA’s collection and reporting of data relating to mine safety and health. To implement these sections, regulations were promulgated detailing a system of required reporting for mines. Under the “Part 50” regulations, mines must immediately report serious injuries or incidents, 30 C.F.R. § 50.10; must report all mine accidents, injuries, and occupational illnesses as they occur on forms called 7000-1 reports, § 50.20; and must report employee work hours and total coal production for each quarter on forms called 7000-2 reports, § 50.30. MSHA uses Part 50 reports to calculate for all mines the “Incidence Rates,” which are the number of injuries or illnesses per employee hour worked, and “Severity Measures,” which take into account the severity of injuries per employee hour worked. See 30 C.F.R. § 50.1. These reports permit MSHA “to investigate, and to obtain and utilize information pertaining to, accidents, injuries, and illnesses occurring or originating in mines.” Id. MSHA also makes all of this compiled data 6 Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 publicly available on its website. See MSHA Statistics, www.msha.gov/stats/statinfo.htm (last visited April 24, 2013). In addition to requiring mine operators to submit the 7000-1 and 7000-2 reports, the Part 50 regulations require mine operators to maintain copies of those records and to permit MSHA to verify the information in those reports. The provision at the center of the controversy here is section 50.41, which permits MSHA to verify the information in the reports: Upon request by MSHA, an operator shall allow MSHA to inspect and copy information related to an accident, injury or illnesses which MSHA considers relevant and necessary to verify a report of investigation required by § 50.11 of this part or relevant and necessary to a determination of compliance with the reporting requirements of this part. 30 C.F.R. § 50.41. The Mine Safety Act authorizes MSHA to enforce these reporting requirements through citations and orders, 30 U.S.C. § 814(a), “failure to abate” penalty fees when a mine has not abated a previously-cited violation, § 814(b), and withdrawal orders, which require a mine to be evacuated and shut down, § 814(d). Mine operators can challenge citations and orders in a hearing before an administrative law judge whose deci- sion is appealable to the Commission. § 815(d). While the contest hearing is pending, mine operators can request temporary relief from certain penalties and other orders. § 815(b)(2). Mine operators can petition for Nos. 12-2316 & 12-2460 7 review of final orders of the Commission by a federal court of appeals, § 816(a)(1), as petitioners have done here.