Editor’s Note:  OMB Watch is a well known pro-regulatory NGO.  The following is there discussion of key planned MSHA regulatory actions in the current year.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says that it will publish in January new rules for its Pattern of Violations (POV) program. The program came under scrutiny in the wake of the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that killed 29 miners. Although the Upper Big Branch mine operators and its owner, Massey Energy, had a clear history of safety and health violations, MSHA had been unable to place the mine on its POV list, a move that triggers increased oversight of a mine. Companies can avoid being listed in the program by appealing violations. MSHA has never placed a mine on the POV list in the program’s 32-year history.

The Unified Agenda does not project a date for the completion of an MSHA rule to reduce the risk of black lung disease. In October 2010, MSHA proposed cutting in half the exposure standard for coal dust, the cause of black lung. MSHA estimates the new standard would prevent thousands of illnesses and hundreds of deaths over the lifetimes of miners.