CONSOL CEO calls for more safety

While speaking to the Utah Mine safety commission CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey called on the coal industry and all levels of government to work together to eliminate all coal mining accidents. Harvey told the commission that it is no longer possible to run the mining industry with the unspoken assumption that a certain number of accidents are inherent in the business of mining. He says CONSOL has launched programs that keep safety in the front of every workers mind and rewards employees for spotless safety records. At the same time Harvey warned that government can not look at high profile accidents and make new regulations based on those sets of circumstances and expect them to work in other mines that may be very different. He says a recent CONSOL study found that safety supervisors spend as much as 90-percent of their time dealing with regulators and government forms. He says that takes time away from being proactive and observing how workers are doing their jobs in an effort to find new ways to prevent accidents. He says his company is looking at ways to increase the number of safety officers in the system