Trump’s Mine Safety Boss Stands by Coal Dust Protections (1)

The Trump administration’s newly minted mine safety regulator, David Zatezalo, told a House panel Feb. 6 that his agency hasn’t identified specific regulations it wants to roll back.

That includes the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s respirable dust rule, despite the fact MSHA published a notice in December 2017 saying it wants to investigate “less costly methods,” including “requirements that could be streamlined or replaced in frequency, Zatezalo said.

The respirable dust rule requires operators to periodically collect air samples in their mines and immediately fix elevated concentrations of dust.

MSHA hasn’t received any public ...