With four days left before the close of public comment on revised rules for mine safety penalties, speakers for the United Mine Workers and the companies they often battle found themselves agreeing that some of the changes won't work.

Union and company officials, testifying at a two-hour public hearing at the Airport Marriott yesterday, said the Mine Safety and Health Administration would be making a big mistake if it adopted a proposed two-tier schedule of penalties that would impose smaller fines on small coal mines while retaining larger ones for bigger operations.

"Large operations are inherently safer," said Ron Van Horne, a spokesman for American Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. "The series of disasters that led to the MINER Act were at smaller mines."

The MINER Act, adopted this year, instructs MSHA to develop new rules to enforce safety at the nation's coal mines. MSHA responded, in part, by seeking to develop new enforcement standards that would include stiffer penalties for mines that violate federal safety rules.

"The small mines should be judged the same as the large mines ... whether it puts them out of business or not," Mr. Van Horne said.

Moments later, spokesmen for the United Mine Workers, which has at times angrily criticized the behavior of Mr. Van Horne's boss, coal magnate Robert Murray, expressed the same view.

"We would agree there is a great disparity between large and small mines," said Tim Baker, a UMW safety official. "The baseline fine should always be the same. If they can't pay it, they should go out of business."

Yesterday's hearings, attended by 29 spectators, was the final in a series seeking public input on the proposed MSHA regulation changes.

Industry and union officials also agreed that a proposal to shorten the window for a mine operator to appeal a safety citation from 10 days to five ought to be dropped.

Where they diverge is on the overall proposal to add more wallop to mine safety fines. Under proposed rules, MSHA would be able to jump regular fines to $60,000, under a graduated system that adds penalty points given a mine's safety history and the severity of the violation.

The new rules also would reduce from 30 percent to 10 percent the "good faith" reduction in fines for conditions that are promptly fixed by mine operators.

In other mining news, President Bush yesterday appointed an embattled nominee to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency in charge of miners' safety, over the opposition of the UMW.

With Congress in recess, the president can appoint Richard Stickler of Terra Alta, W.Va., to the job without Senate approval.

First Published: October 20, 2006, 4:00 a.m.