Durbin Visits Viper Coal Mine

DURBIN VISITS VIPER COAL MINE

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) toured the Viper Mine in Williamsville on Monday morning, which is owned by International Coal Group, the same company that owns the Sago Mine in West Virginia. Durbin has previously expressed concern that the Viper Mine has 124 safety violations on record since ICG purchased the mine a year ago.

"The recent tragic events in West Virginia and Kentucky have captured the nation's attention and exposed the serious dangers our miners face every day," said Durbin. "We have more than 3,500 miners in Illinois. We owe it to them and to their families to ensure all 25 mines in operation in Illinois are well equipped and adequately prepared."

For decades the coal mining industry had been shrinking and mines were being closed, resulting in a formation of fewer mine safety teams across the country. Coal mining in America and in Illinois has seen a recent resurgence in the past two years, causing new mines to open, and necessitating the creation of additional mine rescue teams and more mine safety inspectors.

Durbin called for additional funding for mine safety inspectors, saying, "We need to make sure our mines are carefully and regularly inspected."

The President's 2007 budget claims to have increased mine safety funding by $11 million. In fact, nearly all that increase will be wiped out by inflation, leaving no new dollars to hire the 130 inspectors Mine Safety and Health Administration says it needs. In Illinois, six new coal mines have opened since 2005 and it ranks third in the nation in coal production.

Durbin also called for passage of two mine safety bills in the U.S. Senate which he has co-sponsored. The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 2006 (S 2231), introduced by Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), is designed to strictly enforce the health and safety standards in the existing mine safety law, including rapid notification and response, tougher penalties for habitual safety violators, emergency communications and breathing equipment, and expanded use of advanced safety technologies.

Durbin said he was encouraged by the recent Senate passage of a second bill, the Mine Safety Tax Relief Act of 2006, which will provide tax credits and incentives to encourage coal companies to invest in mine safety equipment and training, including communications technology that allows operators above to communicate with miners below, in case of accidents, electronic tracking devices which allow operators to know where miners are, breathing devices, and mine atmospheric monitoring equipment. The legislation encourages these investments by providing mine operators with a tax deduction in the amount of 50% of the cost of the equipment purchased.

The bill also encourages, with the use of tax credits, mine companies to form rescue teams where they don't exist and increase the number of mine rescue team members trained where teams are already in place.

The mine safety proposal, which was authored by Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), was offered as an amendment to the tax reconciliation bill, and was approved by the Senate earlier this month. The bill now goes to a conference committee where the Senate and House versions of the bill will be reconciled.

Durbin has also written to state and federal agencies responsible for overseeing mine safety asking them for a review of mine safety records in Illinois and elsewhere. In his letters he asked the agencies to examine two issues - the impact funding cuts for mine safety inspections have had on mine safety, and a status report on safety conditions at all of Illinois' mines. President Bush has proposed cuts to the federal coal safety inspection budget in four of the six years he has been in office. Analysts say that those reduced budget numbers have accounted for the loss of 130 mine inspectors since 2000.

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=251792&&