Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015 Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Gov. Tomblin Provides Statements on Signing of Three Controversial Bills

Gov. Tomblin provided statements Thursday on the signing of three bills passed by the state legislature.

Senate Bill 357, creating the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015:

“Today, I signed Senate Bill 357, which calls for changes in several aspects of West Virginia’s mining regulations. As part of my decision to sign the bill, I have worked with legislative leadership to pass a resolution directing the Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety to adopt rules related to the movement of underground equipment. I strongly urge the Board to collaborate and develop responsible regulations that will ensure the safety of our hardworking coal miners while allowing operators additional flexibility to be more productive and competitive long-term.”

Senate Bill 361, adjusting the state’s calculation of prevailing wage:

“Today, I signed Senate Bill 361, which will adjust the state’s calculation of prevailing wage to establish a figure more reflective of actual earnings in regions across the state. While I understand not everyone is happy with this compromise, I’m grateful for the continued work of all involved who came together to address the concerns of hardworking West Virginians while establishing a common sense approach to continued investments in our infrastructure.”

House Bill 2201, requiring the Public Service Commission to adopt certain net metering and interconnection rules and standards:

“Today I signed House Bill 2201, which regulates net metering as part of West Virginia’s power generation. I appreciate the increasing role solar and wind power will play in our state, and I encourage the Public Service Commission to continue to evaluate the costs and benefits of West Virginia’s net metering policy to balance the potential for new jobs and investment in alternative energy without unfairly burdening current rate-payers.”

Coal Jobs & Safety Act of 2015 Passes in the House

The House passed Senate Bill 357 Friday, the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015. This bill has caused a lot of controversy, so it was no surprise when the House debated the bill for two hours. Republicans feel like the bill is an update to previous safety laws, while some Democrats feel like it’s a scale back.

“This act strengthens the state’s enforcement of the coal industry’s drug testing program to treat all miners the same and promote drug free coal mines,” Delegate John Shott, the Judiciary Chair, explained, “It updates West Virginia mine laws on equipment movement and operation to match federal regulations and well-established safety standards; in one instance exceeding the federal regulations requiring the movement of workers out by when in the case of the movement of equipment where electrified trolley wires are present. It also places oversight of underground diesel equipment in the hands of experienced state mine safety regulation, regulators. It syncs state reclamation rules with federal laws to bring consistency to regulatory oversight. It adjusts the aluminum water quality standard to reflect the latest science and better protect the environment, and it conforms, permit enforcement processes to federal laws.”

After the bill was explained to members, a flood of debate ensued on the floor. Republicans expressed belief the bill was steering the coal industry in the right direction, because it was updating technology and saving money, while Democrats felt the bill would roll back the safety laws currently in place.

The bill had full support from Republicans but Democrats were divided.

Delegate Rupert Phillips of Logan County was one of those Democrats who supported the bill.

“If we’re going to move our state forward and be competitive on what’s built this state, the backbone of the state; the coal, the coal miner, we’ve got to move forward,” Phillips noted, “We cannot continue to let DC, EPA, and other groups overregulate our industry.”

Delegate Gary Howell, the Government Organization Chair, also supported the bill.

“It is time we updated these laws for safety,” Howell said, “Time changes, technology changes, we must make sure our coal miners are safe. I support this bill, and I hope you will to for the safety of our miners.”

Delegate Barbara Fleischauer of Monongalia County was strongly against the bill.

“There’s not anything in this bill that improves safety, nothing,” Fleischauer said, “And I can’t believe, after all the fires and explosions we’ve had in this state, recently, we would, and you know what they are; Upper Big Branch, Aracoma, Sego, that we would ever consider rolling back safety protections.”

Minority Leader, Tim Miley, also expressed rejection of the bill.

“We haven’t even heard the cost savings per ton, as to what this bill will accomplish,” Miley noted, “Wouldn’t you think, you can measure man hours saved by activities in the mine that you do or don’t have to do as a result of this bill, you can measure that. How many man hours, combined man hours does it take to stop the mining operations, move heavy equipment, and then bring the miners back, you can measure all of that, this is the 21^st Century. You can measure all of that. We can measure what effects and cost savings, the environmental aspects of this bill will have. We can measure how much it costs to lay track, we can measure all of that, that’s how you come up with a cost per ton as far as how much it costs to mine a ton of coal. If it really were to gonna save that kind of money to reinvest back into creating jobs, I think we would know that.”

After the two hour debate, House Bill 357 passed, 73 to 25, with only Democrats voting against.

Common Core, Home Schooling, & Tensions Over Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015 in House

In the House Wednesday, the Education committee considered a bill that would repeal the common core standards in West Virginia schools. It passed with little debate, but received four amendments to adjust some technicalities and add new provisions to teacher organizations. It now heads to the floor for its consideration. But it was a bill relating to home schooling that brought some discussion among the delegates.

House Bill 2793 contains many provisions relating to home schooling. Among them, it removes the requirement that the person providing the home schooling instruction have a high school diploma; and it permits a parent to administer the required nationally normed standardized test.

Delegate Denise Campbell of Randolph County expressed some concern with the removal of this provision, and questioned who would monitor the tests if parents were allowed to administer them.

Mike Donnelly is an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association as well as a father of children who are home schooled. He addressed Campbell’s concern.

“The purpose of education is to help a child to attain the level of achievement that they’re capable of attaining, and a standardized test doesn’t really do that,” Donnelly noted, “So wherever you’ve got home school parents who have the ability to choose other approaches to assess their child, they’re gonna tend not to use that standardized test, because they want feedback that’s gonna be illustrative and instructed to them, so they’re going to ask a certified teacher, can you help me out here, what are you seeing here?”

During the floor session, another bill relating to home schooling was up for passage.

Delegate Amanda Pasdon, the House Education Chair, spoke on behalf of House Bill 2674.

“This bill allows home school students qualify for the PROMISE scholarship without taking the GED,” Pasdon explained, “It essentially levels the playing field. Home school students will be subject to the same standards as students who attend public or private high schools. I urge passage.”

House Bill 2674 passed 97 to 1. The one nay vote came from Delegate Dana Lynch, a Democrat from Webster County.

Another seven bills were up for passage, but all of them passed without any debate.

In the house, the part of the floor session that allows remarks by members have turned tense on many days and Wednesday was one of them.

Senate Bill 357, the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015 was on first reading, not at the debate stage. But fresh from his angry speech in the Government Organization Committee about prevailing wage, Delegate Mike Caputo of Marion County addressed a set of articles he’d sent to all the delegates. The articles referenced multiple mine disasters that happened in recent years, and Caputo called the bill anything but about mine safety.

“There’s only a few of us in here ever been in a coal mine, and some of us have different views on this, and I respect that, but I’m telling you when you’re moving a major piece of equipment in a mine under extreme conditions anything can happen whether you have a trolley wire or whether you don’t. And when coal miners are in by that move, if that move catches on fire, you can have all the transportation equipment you want, you can have all the communication equipment you want, you can have all the rescue equipment you want, that smoke’s gonna get‘em. And you’re gonna be casting a vote tomorrow, an amendment, that I’m going to introduce to put this law back the way it was and the way it should be. So please, read this. Read this. Every coal company that testified to change that law, not once talked about health and safety, they talked about increasing profits, and I will close by saying, the most important thing, the most important thing to ever come out of a coal mine, is the coal miner.” – Delegate Mike Caputo

Delegate Randy Smith of Preston County was outraged by Caputo’s statements.

“I don’t sit behind a desk everyday making decisions. The men I work with don’t pay me to go and sit behind desks. I go underground every day. I’m in these conditions. I know what I’m talking about, and I’m here to tell you that I take offense to being my character attacked on social media, in the newspaper, from colleagues in this chamber. The bottom line is, when it’s said and done, I’m going to go back underground with those men, and anybody that thinks that I would pass a bill to put someone’s life in danger, and put my life in danger, all I can say is it saddens my heart to think that they would think I would be that low. This bill here, this situation that was just, he was just talking about, this situation this bill addresses, if it’s energized trolley wire, you come out by, it’s as simple as that. That doesn’t change, that’s what this law here was made, that’s what brought this law on was energized trolley wire that caused the fire, and it keeps that in place, but why should we stay in 1972? I would say within the next five years, there will be no, no trolley wire in the coal mines anywhere.” – Delegate Randy Smith

Senate Bill 357 will be on second reading, the amendment stage, Thursday.

House Judiciary Looks at Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015

House Judiciary took up a bill Tuesday that addresses mine safety. Senate Bill 357, also known as House Bill 2566, is the Coal Jobs and Safety Act of 2015. This is a big bill with many provisions, and House Judiciary considered a handful of amendments to it.

There were two amendments to the bill that stirred up some debate within the House Judiciary Committee. Amendment number 2, as the delegates called it, was an amendment proposed by Delegate Woody Ireland of Ritchie County.

Ireland’s amendment addresses when and how and who moves equipment within a coal mine. This amendment adjusts some language related to energized trolley wire, which is a way for miners to move large loads of equipment in shuttle cars.

Delegate Tim Manchin of Marion County proposed a rival amendment to Ireland’s. In Manchin’s amendment, which was referred to as amendment number 4, it suggests putting the language back in the bill that is currently law saying there would be restrictions on how the equipment would be moved.

Manchin called Ireland’s amendment a roll back in mine safety.

“This is a huge roll back in miner safety to take seventy some mines out of the control of this statute to say that seventy some mines will now be allowed to move oversized equipment with motors and other apparatuses that are being strained to their limits in carrying that equipment, to remove those from the provisions and to subject coal miners to being in by of those where they’re going to be exposed to those fumes and fire and all the noxious smoke that comes off of that is an outrage,” Manchin said, “It is a roll back in coal miner safety, it should not be permitted, that we have not been given any adequate excuse to do that, and therefore we should reject this. Men have died, men died to get this statute passed, men died after this statute was passed. Nine men, in Marion and Monongalia County died, I think it was in the 60s or early 70s if I’m not mistaken, because, for this statute, and now we’re going to remove that.”

Delegate Stephen Skinner of Jefferson County, a fellow sponsor of Manchin’s amendment, also spoke against Ireland’s amendment, number 2.

“The amendment offered by the gentleman across applies to a very narrow number of mines,” Skinner said, “The statute as it is right now applies to all mines and is safety focused. We should make the choice for making decisions based on evidence, and we don’t have that evidence here today.”

Delegate Patrick Lane of Kanawha County supported Ireland’s amendment, explaining that amendment number 2 was a good middle-ground and still addressed all the safety concerns.

“The gentleman from Ritchie has offered, what I would consider to be a balanced approach to making sure that miners in most of the mines where there’s a real safety issue with the movement of equipment are protected, but at the same time allowing that equipment to be moved in an efficient manner,” Lane noted, “and I would just remind people to look at the language that it says that a qualified person has to be in charge of transporting it, and specifically, as we heard yesterday, the primary issue is the energized wire that can create the problem, the real safety issue, and I think the gentleman has addressed that specifically, and would ask the committee to adopt amendment number 2 offered by the gentleman from Ritchie and reject amendment number 4.”

After the debate however, Ireland’s amendment passed, and Manchin’s amendment was rejected.

Two more amendments were proposed by Delegates Manchin and Skinner; one having to do with the diesel commission and inspections, while the other had to do with rail track variants from the face of a mine. Both amendments were rejected.

Senate Bill 357 now reports to the floor for its consideration.