Coal giant Massey Energy was fined Tuesday $2.5 million in criminal
fines and $1.7 million in civil fines for a deadly 2006 mine fire
controlled by its subsidiary, Aracoma Coal Co.
From Reuters:
A subsidiary of Massey Energy, Aracoma Coal Co, will pay $4.2 million
for safety violations that led to the deaths of two miners in 2006.
“The global settlement is the largest financial settlement in the coal
industry’s history,” the Justice Department said in a statement on
Tuesday.
Minness Justice, an inspector with the federal Mine Safety and Health
Administration, told fellow MSHA employee
Danny Woods that he believed dangerous amounts of spilled coal and
dust had been allowed to accumulate along the belt line, raising the
risk of a fire, and that the belt’s fire suppression system was
inadequate, Mr. Woods said.
“He was just told to back off and let them run coal, that there was
too much demand for coal,” Mr. Woods said. “He came up and told me he
was told to do certain things and the inspectors before him hadn’t
done a proper job.”
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship also decided
to ignore violations to allow the miners to continue to “run
coal.”
Blankenship involved himself in “day to day decisions” about how the
Aracoma Mine would be run, including an October 2005 note in which
Blankenship told mine managers to ignore anyone who tells them their
job is to do anything except “run coal.”
Last Thursday, Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey
Energy, the fourth largest United States coal company, described his
critics as “communists,” “atheists,” and “greeniacs.” In an address
before the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson, WV, Blankenship
said those who criticize him are “our
enemies”
like Osama bin Laden:
It is as great a pleasure for me to be criticized by the communists
and the atheists of the Charleston Gazette as to be applauded by my
best friends. Because I know they are wrong. People are cowering away
from being criticized by people that are our enemies. Would we be
upset if Osama bin Laden was critical of us?
These are actually mild words for Don Blankenship. This spring,
Blankenship was caught on tape threatening to
shoot
an ABC reporter and then assaulting
him:
The Charleston Gazette’s coverage of Don Blankenship has included these
controversial stories:
The Fatal Aracoma Mine Fire.
In the months before the fatal 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, which
had 25 violations of health and safety laws, Blankenship personally
waived company policy and told mine managers to ignore rules and “run
coal.”
Political Corruption.
Blankenship has spent millions of dollars to influence West Virginia
judgeships and state legislative races, and palled around in Monte
Carlo with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard
and their “female friends” in July 2006. The state court reversed a
$77 million verdict against
Massey in 2008.
Mountaintop
Removal.
Massey Energy is the king of the incredibly destructive practice of
mountaintop removal mining. The Bush Administration (which includes
former Massey officials) overturned Clinton-era rules limiting the
practice. Massey now plans to destroy Coal River
Mountain despite lacking
necessary permits.
How many times have the people in this room heard, at the US Chamber
of Commerce or at the National Mining Association, “I don’t believe in
climate change, but I’m afraid to say that because it is a political
reality”? The greeniacs are taking over the world.
Former Massey Energy executive Stanley Suboleski, who was nominated by
the president to be the Department of Energy assistant secretary for
fossil energy, was scheduled for his nomination
hearing
before the Senate today. The Office of Fossil Energy funds advanced coal
technology efforts and recently received fire for discontinuing the
FutureGen
coal-tech initiative.
E&E News reports
that the White House withdrew his nomination last night, saying that
Suboleski asked to be withdrawn “for personal reasons” Monday afternoon.
JW Randolph, Appalachian Voices Legislative
Associate, made the following statement before his withdrawal was made
public:
In 2000 in Martin County Kentucky, despite repeated warnings about the
serious violations where the impoudment broke, Massey Energy was
responsible for a slurry spill that was 30 times larger than the Exxon
Valdez disaster. The EPA called it the
“worst environmental disaster in the history of the Southeast.” Massey
called it “an Act of God.”
Now, President Bush wants to promote a Massey Executive to “Assistant
Secretary of Energy (fossil energy).” While we are extremely
disappointed, we can’t act as though we are surprised. The promotion
of Stanley Suboeski is consistent with the Bush Administration’s
vigorous efforts to remove every shred of responsibility and decency
from the process of extracting coal, ignoring the human cost at every
turn.
By promoting mountaintop removal mining, the Bush Administration and
Massey Energy have transferred the dangers inherent in coal-mining
from the professional miners doing the work onto the surrounding
civilian communnities who now have to deal daily with fly rock,
poisoned water, and toxic coal waste. Putting Stan Suboleski at the
top of the fossil energy food chain is yet another reckless example of
the President rewarding his friends and contributors in the fossil
fuel industry, and ignoring the true cost of coal to the people in the
Appalachian region.
The White House withdrew Stanley Suboleski’s nomination the night before
the hearing, saying that Suboleski asked for his nomination to be
withdrawn “for personal reasons” Monday afternoon.