The Mine Safety Commission stopped short of suggesting Utah should create its own mine-safety agency, but the panel recommended a look at the feasibility of a state inspection program.
The recommendation was one of 45 in a report given to Gov. Jon Huntsman, who created the Utah Mine Safety Commission in response to two cave-ins at the Crandall Canyon mine in August. The bodies of six miners still have not been recovered.
"Is the state doing everything it should to promote mine safety? The answer is clearly no," said commission chairman Scott Matheson, dean of the University of Utah law school.
The report focuses on providing additional mine training, certification, an accident response plan and research on Utah's deep mines.
Utah has not regulated mines in 20 years. West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and other large mining states have their own safety agencies.
The mining industry has long opposed an independent state agency, saying it could cause headaches for mine operators and threaten the coal industry.
The president of the Utah Mining Association, David Litvin, was a member of Huntsman's commission and wrote a separate statement in the report.
"The statistics show there is little to no correlation between improvement in the safety records at mines in states that have state-administered safety programs as compared to those states, such as Utah, that do not," Litvin wrote, without providing statistics.
The commission examined mine safety in 13 states and found only Colorado and Utah did not inspect mines, leaving the job to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Litvin said a Utah inspection program would "blur the lines of responsibility between MSHA and the state, resulting in delay, confusion, complication and frustration in the state's coal mining industry."
Still, Matheson called the proposed partnership between the state and MSHA one of the most significant recommendations.
He said it could last a year or more so the state can determine how it might be able to provide another set of eyes on mines. MSHA chief Richard Stickler has said he would welcome help from Utah.
Huntsman said he would begin reading the recommendations immediately. Some could be adopted by executive order while others would require approval by lawmakers. The Legislature's 45-day session began Monday.
