Thursday, June 30, 2011

Massey Lied, Their Workers Died

I don't believe in the death penalty, but Massey CEO Don Blankenship should get life for this:
Federal mine disaster investigators disclosed a few pieces of new information Tuesday night from their year-long look at the April 2010 deadly Upper Big Branch mine explosion. They said that:

Mine owner Massey Energy kept two sets of records that chronicled safety problems. One internal set of production reports detailed those problems and how they delayed coal production. But the other records, which are reviewed by federal mine safety inspectors and required by federal law, failed to mention the same safety hazards. Some of the hazards that were not disclosed are identical to those believed to have contributed to the explosion.

— Portions of the Upper Big Branch mine hit by the explosion were not treated for excessive and explosive coal dust because the entryways or tunnels in those areas were too small to accommodate the machine used to spray the material that neutralizes coal dust.
Two sets of safety records, one real that showed the problems that led to the explosion, one record that didn't, shown to the regulators.

This isn't an academic exercise, 29 people lost their lives because Massey's actions. Starting with Blankenship, people should be in prison for knowingly endangering the lives of their employees.

2 comments:

  1. NPR had a good story on this last night

    ReplyDelete
  2. seriously. have you seen Harlan County War?

    ReplyDelete