The bill, a byproduct of a commission appointed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. after August's Crandall Canyon mine disaster killed nine Utah miners, would create a one-person Utah Office of Coal Mine Safety within the Utah Labor Commission.

It also would establish a 13-member technical advisory committee, a certification panel to ensure coal miners have adequate training and a system that would allow people to confidentially report unsafe conditions in a Utah mine.

Sponsoring Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, submitted a substitute bill on Friday that eliminated earlier language directing the Utah Labor Commission to participate in the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's "regulation, inspection and plan approval systems." Instead, the substitute bill said the state agency's role is simply to "promote coal mine safety." The substitute bill also added two members to the technical advisory committee, one representing a coal mining union, the other an industry trade association.

- Mike Gorrell