Federal Agency Decisions
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Prairie State Generating Company, LLC
Initial roof and ventilation plan citations affirmed
Prairie State began operating the new Lively Grove underground coal mine without approved roof control and ventilation plans by agreement with MSHA so it could contest the agency's proposed provisions. The operator sought 40-foot cuts, wider entries and intersections, lower air quantities, and…
Peabody Coal Company
Negligence findings reversed and penalties remanded
Peabody Coal Company was cited after respirable-dust sampling showed violations of the applicable limit at continuous-miner units. The ALJ found high negligence and unwarrantable failure and assessed $15,000 in civil penalties. The Commission reversed those findings, concluding that the ALJ applied…
Harlan Cumberland Coal Company
Consolidated penalties partly affirmed, vacated, and settled
Harlan Cumberland Coal Company faced civil-penalty proceedings involving five dockets and multiple alleged safety violations. The parties settled some citations, while Judge Roy J. Maurer decided the remaining disputes. The judge affirmed many citations, vacated some citations for insufficient…
Green River Coal Company, Inc.
Methane and coal-dust findings mixed
Green River Coal operated an underground coal mine with three consolidated dockets. The judge found that methane in a return-air split violated the requirement to reduce methane below one percent and that the operator’s failure to act on a recorded methane reading was unwarrantable. The judge also…
Zeigler Coal Company
Abandoned-panel citation vacated
MSHA cited Zeigler Coal Company for allegedly failing to ventilate an abandoned panel at the Murdock Mine under 30 C.F.R. § 75.329-1(a). Judge George A. Koutras found that the standard applied only to abandoned areas already in existence by December 30, 1970, while this panel was developed in 1987…
What these documents are
- The agencies: Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), and environmental permit and penalty appeals from the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Each decision page names its agency.
- Commission and Board decisions: Rulings by the agency's highest review level (the Commission at OSHRC and FMSHRC, the Environmental Appeals Board at EPA). These are citable as precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by the agency's Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order that binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent: under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j) at OSHRC, and after the 40-day window of 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) at FMSHRC.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official public release from the deciding agency, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.