The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill on March 11 that would reduce the number of required mine emergency technicians (METs) on a shift from two to one for underground coal mines with 15 or fewer miners working at a time, reported local media.
Rep. Bill Wesley (R-Ravenna), who sponsored House Bill 85, said that by letting smaller mining shifts have only one MET it would keep such mines operating consistently. “There have been coal mining shifts or basically the whole coal production shut down based on because one MET did not show up for work,” he said. “Nobody got paid. Everyone was sent home, and I think that this is a needed bill to help all the coal miners.”
Opponents of the bill argued that having two METs on a shift is needed in case one is unable to perform emergency medical care. “It truly troubles me to think that we could potentially be trading the safety of our coal mining families for what appears to be a nominal financial benefit, if anything at all,” said Rep. Ashley Tackett-Laferty (D-Martin).