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•Title I– The Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), will protect American jobs and support U.S. energy production by prohibiting the Secretary of the Interior from issuing new rules or regulations that will adversely impact mining jobs and our economy.
â—¦It is a necessary safeguard in response to the effort by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to conduct a sweeping rewrite of a coal mining regulation (the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule) that will cost an estimated 270,000 mining related jobs and decrease American energy production.
â—¦This legislation does not affect any existing OSM regulations, but is simply a time-out to allow OSM to ensure any new regulations are consistent with the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).
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Harvard University’s graduates are earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology after a decade-long commodity bull market created shortages of workers as well as minerals.
Those leaving the college of 2,300 students this year got paid a median salary of $56,700, according to PayScale Inc., which tracks employee compensation data from surveys. At Harvard, where tuition fees are almost four times higher, they got $54,100. Those scheduled to leave the campus in Rapid City, South Dakota, in May are already getting offers, at a time when about one in 10 recent U.S. college graduates is out of work.
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The Board has partnered with the WVU Mining Extension Service to assist in its review and have jointly developed a proposal to guide this review going forward. A copy of this proposal has been forwarded to our members for review.
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There are several areas of the comprehensive legislation which have been misread or misapplied by the agency which we’ll attempt to rectify. In short, the proposed changes to the electrical rule primarily affect the manner by which the experience of apprentices is maintained and verified. Heretofore, the mine operator and apprentice mine electrician are responsible for recording electrical work performed by apprentices. The draft revision would additionally require supervising mine electricians to verify the time devoted to electrical work by apprentice electricians under their supervision. The proposed changes also extend the validity of Apprentice Mine Electrician Certification from one year to eighteen (18) months.
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