Tougher fines, safer mines

EVER SINCE 12 WEST VIRGINIA men died in a coal mine explosion last month, the federal government’s mine safety agency has been working overtime to shore up its damaged reputation. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued sheaves of press releases announcing how it backs the miners union’s effort to play a role in the investigation, or how it’s “aggressively” testing a device to locate missing coal workers. More recently, and more important, it announced that, pending congressional approval, the maximum fine for safety infractions at mines would nearly quadruple, from $60,000 to $220,000.

That sounds tough. But new fines won’t protect miners any better than the old ones did unless they’re levied, and this is where the agency has repeatedly fallen short. The Sago mine in West Virginia, where the 12 men died, had a particularly egregious record of health and safety violations -- 208 in 2005 alone. Yet the vast majority of its fines were less than $250.

According to a congressional report, the mining agency has imposed the maximum penalty on mine owners just 37 times during the Bush administration. (In the five years before that, the maximum penalty was imposed 118 times.) In addition, the few large fines are typically reduced substantially on appeal.

If the administration means what it says about protecting miners, it can fix this. First, install a strict fine schedule prescribing appropriate and attention-getting penalties for serious infractions, with clear rules about how they increase for repeat violations. It should also aggressively defend its fines on appeal. As the number of U.S. coal-mining deaths rises -- 21 so far this year -- the administration still needs to back up its tough words with strong action.