MSHA: Deaths among coal miners reach ‘historic low’ in 2020

Being a data driving Safety Professional, I always like to look at statistics. For instance, it would be interesting to compare the number of coal mining fatalities, the number of coal mine employees, and the number of coal short tons produced today compared to 10 years ago. I live in Wyoming where Coal has been King for so long. However, due to the aggressive actions taken by the Obama organization (2009-2017), it was made crystal clear the coal (as well as oil and gas) production was not going to be the clean, abundant energy of the future. More than 40% of the coal produced in the United States coal comes from the 16 mines in the Powder River Basin (PRB), a mining region primarily located in northeast Wyoming and southeastern Montana. Four companies collectively own more than half of those PRB mines. Two of the companies, Cloud Peak and Blackjewel, filed bankruptcy in 2018. The two other companies, Peabody and Arch Coal, are proposing a joint venture that involves some of the PRB mines. Having worked for two of the coal companies in the PRB (Peabody Energy & Alpha Coal West) for over ten years this subject is near and dear to my heart. I chose to focus on one of the statistics I could find easily; coal production. In 2009, the PRB shipped 455,502,689 (455 Mt). However, when you look at only 10 years later, the PRB only shipped 294,173,142 (294 Mt). That is a reduction of over 54%. It would be safe to say that if the coal mines produced 54% less coal, then they would need fewer miners to mine the coal, and the risk exposure would decrease. Employment numbers for just the PRB were very difficult to find. However, in the United States, MSHA states in 2009 there were 134,089 coal miners compared to the 81,361 in 2019; or a 64% reduction in workforce. Using the employment numbers from the article, they state there were around 64,000 coal miners in 2020; or another 27% reduction from 2019 to 2020. As far as fatalities are concerned, overall, coal miners and fatalities across the nation have declined. In 2009, MSHA's records show there were 18 fatalities compared to the 12 fatalities in 2019. I am not trying to take anything away from what the Coal mining companies and MSHA have done over the last ten years to help protect the coal miners and reduce the overall risk exposure. I am only saying that having fewer tonnes of coal produced would lead to layoffs, cutbacks, and other downsizing measures to help the mines stay profitable while continuing to deliver the coal to their customers and reducing the overall risk exposure. Randy S. Milliron - SMS, EMR