Trolleys

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR <SUBAGY>Mine Safety and Health Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>30 CFR Parts 56, 57, 75, and 77</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. MSHA-2025-0086]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1219-AC20</RIN> <SUBJECT>Trolleys</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Department of Labor. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> MSHA is proposing to remove and revise provisions for metal and nonmental (MNM) mines and coal mines regarding the use of trolleys for transportation of mined ore, coal, material, and personnel. Trolleys are an outdated technology that have been replaced by more efficient belt conveyor haulage systems for transporting mined ore and coal. Diesel and battery-operated mobile equipment are now used to transport personnel and equipment. Trolleys are no longer used in MNM or coal mines and there is no anticipated future use of this legacy equipment in MNM and coal mines. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before July 31, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> All submissions must include RIN 1219-AC20 or Docket No. MSHA-2025-0086. You should not include personal or proprietary information that you do not wish to disclose publicly. If you mark parts of a comment as “business confidential” information, MSHA will not post those parts of the comment. Otherwise, MSHA will post all comments without change, including any personal information provided. MSHA cautions against submitting personal information. You may submit comments and informational materials, clearly identified by RIN 1219-AC20 or Docket No. MSHA-2025-0086, by any of the following methods: 1. <E T="03">Federal E-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments for MSHA-2025-0086. 2. <E T="03">Email: zzMSHA-comments@dol.gov.</E> Include “RIN 1219-AC20” in the subject line of the message. 3. <E T="03">Regular Mail or Hand Delivery:</E> MSHA, Office of Standards, Regulations, and Variances, Room C3522, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210. Before visiting MSHA in person, call 202-693-9440 to make an appointment. No telefacsimiles (“faxes”) will be accepted. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Jessica D. Senk, Acting Director, Office of Standards, Regulations, and Variances, MSHA, at 202-693-9440 (voice). This is not a toll-free number. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> Trolleys were historically used in metal and nonmetal (MNM) and coal mines for transportation of mined ore, coal, equipment, and personnel. Trolleys typically consisted of a low carriage, mounted on wheels having a fixed in bearings trolley pole, pressing upward in rolling contact with an overhead trolley wire to take off electric current for operating a locomotive or other motorized equipment. The trolley wire was typically hung from the roof and this energized conductor was a constant source of danger to miners. Coverings of insulating materials were used to guard miners from direct contact with the wire. Energized trolley wires exposed miners to electrical hazards. While various forms of trolleys were once common in mines, this equipment is no longer used and has been replaced by more efficient belt conveyor haulage systems, and diesel and battery-operated mobile equipment. Therefore, MSHA proposes to remove all references to trolleys in title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations (30 CFR) parts 56, 57, 75, and 77. These proposed changes do not reduce protection for miners because miners no longer work on or around trolleys. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Discussion</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Part 56—Safety and Health Standards—Surface Metal and Nonmetal Mines</HD> In 30 CFR part 56, MSHA proposes to remove the following sections because trolleys are no longer in use at surface MNM mines; therefore, these sections are no longer necessary to protect the safety and health of miners. MSHA proposes to remove §§ 56.12042, 56.12050, 56.12053, and 56.14216. Also, MSHA proposes to revise the following sections to remove references to trolleys. MSHA proposes to revise §§ 56.6203, 56.12065, 56.12066, and 56.12071. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Part 57—Safety and Health Standards—Underground Metal and Nonmetal Mines</HD> In 30 CFR part 57, MSHA proposes to remove the following sections because trolleys are no longer used at underground MNM mines; therefore, these sections are no longer necessary to protect the safety and health of miners. MSHA proposes to remove §§ 57.6160(a)(6), 57.12042, 57.12050, 57.12053, 57.12081, 57.12086, 57.14160, and 57.14216. Also, MSHA proposes to revise the following sections to remove references to trolleys. MSHA proposes to revise §§ 57.6160(a)(5), 57.6203, 57.12065, 57.12066, 57.12071, and 57.12080. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Part 75—Mandatory Safety Standards—Underground Coal Mines</HD> In 30 CFR part 75, MSHA proposes to remove the following sections because trolleys are no longer used at underground coal mines; therefore, these sections are no longer necessary to protect the safety and health of miners. MSHA proposes to remove §§ 75.327, 75.360(b)(7), 75.371(v), 75.508-1, 75.510, 75.510-1, 75.518-2, 75.1000, 75.1001, 75.1001-1, 75.1003, 75.1003-1, 75.1003-2, 75.1106-2(b), 75.1311(b)(4), 75.1403-7(m), 75.1902(d)(2), and 75.1906(j). MSHA proposes to revise the title of Subpart K to remove references to trolleys. MSHA also proposes to revise the following sections to remove references to trolleys: §§ 75.333(b)(4), 75.380(f)(2)(iii), 75.380(g), 75.508, 75.516-2(c), 75.517, 75.807, 75.1600-2, 75.1707-1, and 75.1902(d)(2). <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Part 77—Mandatory Safety Standards, Surface Coal Mines and Surface Work Areas of Underground Coal Mines</HD> In 30 CFR part 77, MSHA proposes to remove the following sections because trolleys are no longer used at surface coal mines and surface work areas of underground coal mines; therefore, these sections are no longer necessary to protect the safety and health of miners. MSHA proposes to remove subpart S, consisting of §§ 77.1800 through 77.1802. MSHA seeks comment on any aspects of this proposed rule including whether MSHA should prohibit the use of trolleys. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Procedural Issues and Regulatory Review</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Review Under Executive Orders 12866 and 13563</HD> Executive Order (E.O.) 12866, “Regulatory Planning and Review” 58 FR 51735 (Oct. 4, 1993), requires agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits; (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public. E.O. 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review” 76 FR 3821 (Jan. 21, 2011), requires agencies to use the best available techniques to quantify anticipated present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible. E.O. 13563 reaffirms the principles of E.O. 12866 while calling for improvements in the nation's regulatory system to promote predictability, reduce uncertainty, and use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. E.O. 12866 and E.O. 13563 direct agencies to assess all costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize net benefits. E.O. 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both costs and benefits, reducing costs, harmonizing rules, and promoting flexibility. Under section 3(f) of E.O. 12866, a “significant regulatory action” is a regulatory action that is likely to result in a rule that may: (1) have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, or adversely affect in a material way he economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or state, local, or tribal governments or communities (also referred to as economically significant); (2) create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with an action taken or planned by another agency; (3) materially alter the budgetary impact of entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs or the rights and obligations of recipients; or (4) raise novel legal or policy issues arising out of legal mandates, the President's priorities, or the principles set forth in the E.O. Under section 6(a) of E.O. 12866, the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) determines whether a regulatory action is significant and whether Agencies are required to submit the regulatory action to OIRA for review. Removing the provisions concerning the use of trolleys in mines would not impose new compliance costs to mine operators or reduce the protections afforded to miners. This proposed rule is determined to not constitute a “significant regulatory action” because it does not meet any of the four “significant regulatory action” criteria under section 3(f) of E.O. 12866. Accordi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 35k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━