Mining industry spent $4.1M lobbying

WASHINGTON

The U.S. mining industry's main trade group spent about $4.1 million in 2007 to lobby the government on mine safety and coal technology, among other issues.

The National Mining Association spent $2.4 million in the second half of the year lobbying the federal government on its own behalf, according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate's public records office.

It lobbied on legislation related to converting domestic coal into cleaner-burning synthetic fuel and cleaning up of polluted sites and abandoned mines.The trade group also lobbied on mine safety legislation although it was unclear to what extent.

Congress passed several new safety laws in 2006 following three deadly disasters. The new rules call for the government to develop communications equipment by 2009 that could withstand a massive cave-in and help rescuers locate survivors. Last August, a cave-in at the Crandall Canyon mine in central Utah trapped six miners, who are presumed dead because their bodies have not been recovered. Several rescue workers were also killed in a second collapse.

The trade group -- whose more than 325 member companies include Arch Coal Inc., Foundation Coal Holdings Inc. and Terex Corp. -- spent $1.7 million in the first six months of 2007 to lobby on largely similar matters.

Besides Congress, the group lobbied the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Defense and Interior departments, Environmental Protection Agency and several other agencies.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.