Page 60 - Advances In Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

46 Advances in Productive, Safe, and Responsible Coal Mining

At the same time, and remaining essentially true through 2016, the US Mine Safety
and Health Administration (MSHA) has remained steadfastly reliant on a more pre-
scriptive approach to mine safety regulation. While some changes and amendments
have been made to the Federal Mine Safety & Health Act of 1977 (Public Law
91-173), in relation to the general approach of identifying hazards and defining appro-
priate controls, it remains unchanged. What has changed has been the approach to
enforcement, which has been defined more by political philosophy than science.
The two dominant political parties in the US see regulatory enforcement with polar-
ized perspectives: one sees unrelenting compliance enforcement using primarily mon-
etary civil sanctions but with the option of elevating serious violations into a criminal
enforcement activity. The second party generally believes the most effective approach
to regulatory enforcement to be a mix of enforcement and compliance assistance,
including education and consultation. Regrettably, neither perspective has been
supported with unbiased data demonstrating the effectiveness of the respective
approaches.
Today, it is increasingly rare for the industry to experience disasters on the scale
known to the industry for hundreds of years as measured by outcomes such as fatal-
ities, fires, or major explosions. From 1900 to 2006, the US coal industry experienced
104,398 fatalities, or an average of 984 per year for 106years with the maximum count
of 3242 in 1907 [28]. From 2006 to 2016, US coal mines experienced 227 fatalities, or
approximately 23 per year [28]. Clearly, performance has improved exponentially.
The question is, how and why did safety performance improve, and if the status
quo is maintained, will the industry reach zero harm? Not surprisingly, MSHA views
the improvement primarily as the result of consistent, strong enforcement of the reg-
ulations [29], while the industry sees the improvement more in relation to the discre-
tionary risk management activities undertaken beyond MSHA’s statutory obligations
[30]. When national mine safety regulatory schemes are aligned on merit with the
industry’s understanding of best practice for achieving safety excellence, there is a
clear mechanism for continuous improvement.
Notwithstanding the importance of regulation is driving performance improvement
in the coal industry worldwide, it is important to recognize that the closer a mining
company comes to achieving and sustaining zero harm performance, the less likely
mine safety and health legislation and regulation will play a role in the company’s
approach to gaining additional improvements. Regulations are essential for mining
companies who have not developed their own risk management systems, leadership,
and culture to forge a continuous improvement path to zero harm. However, the test
for the independence and maturity of a company’s culture and approach to zero harm
is how much difference the enforcement of mine safety regulation makes in driving
performance improvement. What do coal-mining companies do when they are already
in full and consistent compliance with government safety regulations, but have expe-
rience fatal injuries and illnesses?
Ultimately, for the global coal industry to have a reliable probability to achieve
zero harm safety performance, there needs to be a greater understanding of the most
effective role of government safety legislation and regulation. Many stakeholders
believe that that will require a more objective analysis of different regulatory schemes