FLETCHER'S ACTIONS HAVE MINERS WORRIED ABOUT SAFETY

The anti-government crowd, the bunch that condemns government
regulation as the great weight preventing free market triumph, will
make the most of the latest Kentucky coal fatality statistics.

So far this year, three men have died in the state's mines, as opposed
to nine who lost their lives digging coal in Kentucky last year.
That's good news, and it will prompt some to insist that government
oversight is adequate in the coalfields - that there is no need for
increased vigilance. But three is three too many. Further, while
fatalities are down, serious non-fatal accidents have increased
dramatically in Kentucky, from 12 all of last year to 14 thus far this
year. These are the incidents that, while they do not kill, do leave
miners burned and broken, in wheelchairs and flat on their backs,
unable to work and unable to earn.

Whether Gov. Ernie Fletcher will be properly sensitive to the jeopardy
of those who mine coal remains to be seen.

Across the country, 14 miners have lost their lives in accidents this
year. And, after the latest two Kentucky deaths, the state political
director of the United Mine Workers, Steve Earle, began publicly
questioning the "kind of shape these mines are in." He warned, "I'm
not sure they're getting the inspections they ought to be getting."

But Gov. Fletcher has not given Mr. Earle, and the miners he
represents, any reason for confidence. Last month, for example, the
Fletcher administration fired Kenny Johnson as the state's
second-ranking mine-safety official. He was a man who knew the problem
from the ground up, having worked in the mines 28 years and
represented miners as a UMW official, before becoming deputy
commissioner of the state Division of Mines and Minerals for four
years. Mr. Johnson was given no reason for the dismissal, but Mark
York, spokesman for the state Environmental and Public Protection
Cabinet, did explain that the Governor "was elected with a mandate to
change state government, to increase its effectiveness and
efficiency." Notice that it's now the "Division" of Mines and
Minerals. That's because Gov. Fletcher downgraded the agency that
oversees the dangerous business of mining, from a department to a
division, giving miners' advocates more reason to worry.

Although swept into office by a wave of revulsion against his
predecessor's sexual misbehavior and subsequent lies, Dr. Fletcher
invokes "mandate to change" as a justification for just about anything
he wants to do, from subverting the state constitution's requirement
for a legislatively-approved budget to banning people with tattoos
from work in state parks. Or getting rid of a miners' advocate like
Kenny Johnson. Or lowering the bureaucratic profile of the state's
mine regulation effort.

If Dr. Fletcher does indeed have a "mandate to change" things, he
should make sure he's changing them for the better. But his
administration seems content with things as they are.

Earlier this month, when Edwin Pennington and Eric Chaney died, hours
apart, in Eastern Kentucky mine accidents, Mr. York of the Kentucky
Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet defended the regulatory
status quo. "We think we've got a good inspection program," he said.

Those who speak for miners fear it's not good enough. To cite just one
example, the UMW believes state-sponsored drug testing is needed for
those who work in mining operations.

The need became clear last June, in Floyd County, after one Cody
Mining employee was killed and another seriously injured.
Investigators found marijuana at the scene. Another miner reported
seeing two of his co-workers crush painkillers and inhale them.

The case for drug testing is obvious, but it's just one part of the
challenge that Gov. Fletcher and his team should consider. The
Governor knows that coal prices and production are on the rise. His
new spending plan, as a result, anticipates, $16.6 million more in
severance tax revenue to share with counties. But when the coal market
heats up, so does the temptation to boost output by cutting corners.

The Fletcher administration should be reaching out to miners'
representatives, to discuss what they can do, together, to reduce the
danger as coal production speeds up. Instead, last month the UMW was
meeting with Environmental and Public Protection Secretary LaJuana
Wilcher to discuss why she and Commissioner of Natural Resources Susan
Bush had been visiting mines with representatives of the Kentucky Coal
Association, without including folks from the Division of Mines and
Minerals.

Maybe the union read too much into that corporate guided tour. Time
will tell, and fairly soon.

The Fletcher administration's intentions and priorities will become
clear when it issues an expected executive order, reorganizing and
repositioning the mine regulation bureaucracy.

The General Assembly refused to go along with demotion of the
then-Department of Mines and Minerals. If the Governor wants that to
stick, he must issue another order.

What it contains, and who he puts in charge, will say a lot about Gov.
Fletcher's commitment to mine safety.

The reform of weak mining regulation was one of former Gov. Paul
Patton's triumphs. It has produced real results. In the last two and a
half years, Mines and Minerals has filed 41 disciplinary cases against
mine safety violators, including charges against 74 individuals.
Sanctions have been imposed, as a result, on 67 of them. Twenty-three
have had their mining certificates revoked, six permanently. Fourteen
have had their certificates suspended, and 30 have had theirs probated.

Is hard-nosed regulation and enforcement necessary? Consider, for
example, the requirement for rock-dusting, to prevent rolling
explosions that can kill everybody in a mine. As recently as May 24, a
methane ignition at the Murriell-Don Coal No. 4 Mine in Knott County
was a near-miss. Disaster was avoided because an area near a powder
magazine had been rock-dusted, as regulations require.

Will Gov. Fletcher keep pushing in the direction that Mr. Patton
chose, or fall back on the tired view that industry knows best how to
solve its own problems? He should study the statistics carefully
before deciding.