One Hundred Years of Federal Mining Safety and Health Research

• Energy-related minerals information—$7 million
• Non-fuel minerals information—$10 million
• Metallurgy research—$16 million
• Mining, explosives, health and safety research—$38 million
• General administration—$2 million
The health and safety enforcement area was split out to MSHA in 1973, and the two energyrelated
functions became part of the Department of Energy (DOE) by 1977. Thus, $91 million,
or approximately 58 percent of the Bureau’s fiscal year 1973 budget, was in functional areas that
were to be split off from the Bureau in the period 1973-77.
5.3.1 Transfer of USBM Research Labs to ERDA
In 1975, the Bartlesville Energy Research Center, the Morgantown Energy Research Center, and
the Pittsburgh Energy Research Center, as well as a few smaller energy research labs, were
transferred from the Bureau to the new U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration
(ERDA). ERDA was created as part of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, passed on
October 11, 1974, in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.
ERDA was formed mostly from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and it was
given the research functions of the AEC not assumed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ERDA was activated on January 19, 1975. In 1977, ERDA was combined with the Federal
Energy Administration to form the United States DOE. Under DOE, the three former Bureau
sites became the Bartlesville Energy Technology Center (BETC), Morgantown Energy
Technology Center (METC), and Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC). The centers’
responsibilities included in-house research in coal, oil, and gas technologies as well as
management of millions of dollars in contracts for research and development conducted by
universities, industry, and other research institutions. These centers formed the basis of the
current National Energy Technology Laboratory of DOE.
5.3.2 Coal Advanced Mining Technology Program
Following the oil embargo crisis of 1973-74, the Bureau began a large new program of coal
mining research and development (R&D) to allow for a rapid expansion of the coal industry if
needed to respond to any future energy crisis. This was the Advanced Mining Technology
Program, and it rapidly expanded with a budget for fiscal year 1976 of $44.5 million ($169
million in 2009 dollars) as compared to $34.9 million for all mining health and safety research in
that year. Some of this expanded funding was used for the construction of new mining research
buildings and facilities at Bruceton, including the collection of buildings and equipment that was
called the Mining Equipment Test Facility (METF). Much of this expanded research was
planned to be performed at a new Bureau mining research center to be established in Carbondale,
IL.
When the Department of Energy was established in 1977, the Coal Advanced Mining
Technology Program was transferred to DOE along with the newly established research center at
Carbondale, as well as the staff and facilities of the program that were located at Bruceton. The
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