Regulatory Governance and Risk Management: Occupational Health and Safety in the Coal Mining Industry

Regulatory Governance and Risk Management will be the first book addressing the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry from a health and safety standpoint. More specifically, it aims to understand a puzzling phenomenon. Since the 1990s, the approach of risk-based governance has been widely adopted in almost all developed countries in Europe and commonwealth countries. It, however, has diffused much more slowly in the U.S. Using a diffusion approach and comparisons between Australia and the U.S., this book examines mechanisms that both drive and prevent the diffusion of risk-based governance in the coal mining industry.

This book has two major selling points. First, this is a timely work given the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion occurred in April, 2010. After this disaster, many asked why an enhanced level of enforcement after 2006 has not prevented catastrophic accidents from occurring and why risk-based governance, which helps other countries achieve better safety performance, has been largely ignored in the U.S. This book answers these questions and makes recommendations on how to remove barriers in moving toward risk-based governance. Second, this book is readable because it embeds theories into storytelling and gives particular emphasis on the influence of key strategic individuals.

Binglin Yang is currently working as a consultant at Safety Solutions International, a health and safety management consulting firm in Colorado. He received his PhD in public administration from the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech in 2010.