Stickler to Stay on at Mine Safety and Health Administration

Richard Stickler is expected to continue to lead the Mine Safety and Health Administration for the remainder of the Bush Administration.

Stickler has been appointed by the White House to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health four times without Senate confirmation.

The President made one recess appointment, but the maximum time of that appointment will expire soon. When that happens, Secretary Stickler will be named acting assistant secretary but will remain in the leadership position until inauguration day, January 20, 2009.

Contact Tom Carter or Deidra Ciriello.

Business Group Petitions on Ozone Rule Rejected by Supreme Court

Petitions filed by Baton Rouge, La.-area business groups and the National Petrochemicals and Refineries Association (NPRA), for writ of certiorari, seeking review of a U.S. Appeals Court opinion requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to amend its 2004 Ozone Reduction Rule, were denied January 14 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 2004 EPA regulation was challenged by Earthjustice, the American Lung Association, Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club.

The Supreme Court’s denial preserves the appellate court’s judgment that EPA had not acted properly in setting an excessively broad timeframe for regions–particularly for those with mild ozone pollution–to comply with the 2004 ozone standard. The Appellate Court’s unanimous decision ruled that EPA’s action was in violation with the Clean Air Act (the 2004 EPA rule is tied to the CAA amendments of 1990).

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

House Passes Amendment to Mine Safety and Health Act

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed H.R. 2768, the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2007 (S-MINER). The final vote (214-199), which failed to achieve the two-thirds, veto-proof majority, was primarily along party lines.

The bill, spurred by the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in central Utah on August 6, amends the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 and the MINER Act of 2006. The bill includes provisions for better disaster prevention, improved emergency response, and to reduce long-term health risks. Three of the four amendments offered on Wednesday that passed provide relief to fined mine operators and funding for rehabilitation to former miners suffering from mental health issues and substance abuse as well as a mandate for fire-resistant conveyor belts and dust monitors.

Critics of the S-MINER Act have commented that this legislation only provides another layer of unnecessary regulation on an already heavily regulated industry.

The President and CEO of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA) Joy Wilson stated that “NSSGA is extremely disappointed that a majority of the House of Representatives failed to recognize that this legislation, though well-intentioned, was ill-timed and unnecessary given the current efforts now underway in industry and government to insure that miners work under the safest conditions possible.”

The Bush Administration has indicated that it will veto S-MINER should it reach the White House, expressing concern that the bill undermines implementation efforts of the MINER Act.

Contact Kevin Walgenbach.

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