876
Opinion of the Court
mine safety. Explosions in coal mines sparked by CBM gas occurred with distressing frequency in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Brief for National Mining Association as Amicus Curiae 7. Congress was also well aware that the CBM gas needed to be vented to the greatest extent possible. Almost 20 years prior to the passage of the 1909 and 1910 Acts, Congress had enacted the first federal coal-mine-safety law which, among other provisions, prescribed specific ventilation standards for coal mines of a certain depth "so as to dilute and render harmless . . . the noxious or poisonous gases." 1891 Territorial Mine Inspection Act, § 6, 26 Stat. 1105. See also 3 Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, supra, at 2229 (explaining the dangers associated with fire-damp).
That CBM gas was considered a dangerous waste product which escaped from coal, rather than part of the valuable coal fuel itself, is also confirmed by the fact that coal companies venting the gas to prevent its accumulation in the mines made no attempt to capture or preserve it. The more gas that escaped from the coal once it was brought to the surface, the better it was for the mining companies because it decreased the risk of a dangerous gas buildup during transport and storage. Cf. E. Moore, Coal: Its Properties, Analysis, Classification, Geology, Extraction, Uses and Distribution 308 (1922) (noting that the presence of gases such as methane in the coal increases the risk of spontaneous combustion of the coal during storage).
(The fact that CBM gas was known to escape naturally from coal distinguishes it from the "producer gas" that was generated from coal in the 1800's. Brief for Federal Respondents 30. Producer gas was produced by "destructive distillation, that is, by heating the coal to a temperature where it decomposed chemically." App. 531 (reproducing Perry, The Gasification of Coal, Scientific American 230, (Mar. 1974)). The natural escape of CBM gas from the coal also distinguishes CBM gas from other "volatile matter,"
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