Record Fine Seen in Mining Disaster (Massey for Upper Big Branch)

[alp227]

Source: Wall St Journal (google title for full article)

Federal regulators are expected to issue the largest fine ever to a U.S. mining company in connection with the Massey Energy Co. accident last year that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which is set to release its report Tuesday on the accident at the Upper Big Branch mine, is expected to issue about 360 safety citations. The majority of the citations are expected to be labeled "contributory" to the accident, according to one person briefed on the report from the mine-safety administration.

The largest mining fine to date was levied against Murray Energy Corp.: $1.85 million for the 2007 accident at its Crandall Canyon mine in Utah that killed six miners and two rescue workers. In that case, the agency issued 20 citations, including nine that were "contributory."

"It's going to be the most ever in the history of the agency," said a person who has been briefed on the safety agency's Upper Big Branch report.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204083204577080731849613926.html

[tabasco]

1. Won't be high enough

unless that scumbag owner is forced to work in his own mines.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

7. WV conservative media is already trying rehabilitate him

Rightwing Charleston paper awarded him a column last week:
http://dailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/201111290137

and the WV GOP leadership still takes money from him, despite the fact that he fled to Tennessee with his golden parachute money.

[tabasco]

12. Thanks for making me aware of this.

I'm signing up there to make a scathing comment.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. I'm conflicted............

On one hand, I hope that the fines are big enough to cripple the company.

On the other hand, I want the people currently employed by the company to continue working........

[Jumping John]

3. Massey Energy Co was sold:

In January 2011, it was announced that Massey Energy company would be bought by competitor Alpha Natural Resources for $7.1 billion.<9> More than 99% of Massey shareholders and 98% of Alpha shareholders voted in favor of the acquisition and courts in Delaware and West Virginia<10> refused to block the shareholders' vote.
Massey Energy owned and operated Upper Big Branch Mine where 29 miners were killed in April 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massey_Energy

[DCKit]

4. $7.1 Billion should be about enough to compensate all the people they've harmed.

Unfortunately, as with most gubmint settlements, those harmed won't see a penny.

[Lasher]

6. And the guilty parties won't have to pay a dime

or spend one day in jail.

[Selena Harris]

8. Check out some of the Massey Board of Directors:

General Robert H. Foglesong, retired four-star general, U.S. Air Force
Richard M. Gabrys, former vice chairman, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Robert B. Holland, former director, Financial Guaranty Insurance Corporation
Admiral Bobby Inman, former director, National Security Agency(That's the NSA,folks)
Stanley C. Suboleski, former commissioner, Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

Incidentally, the Alpha Natural Resources Wiki is referring to this buyout deal with Massey as a "merger". And none other than Citigroup and JP MorganChase are the $$$ behind it.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

5. pocket change to Blankenship

he spent twice as much buying an election for a judge in 2004

[Citizen Worker]

9. And there should be an indictment charging 29 counts of homicide! But we all know that won't happen

The dead miners are expendable and a monetary fine proves it!

[burrowowl]

10. A fine isn't enough

they should be convicted of at least manslaughter and JAILED!

[Hotler]

11. +1 n/t

[Scurrilous]

13. Owner of W.Va. coal mine agrees to pay a $209 million penalty for fatal explosion

<snip>

"The owner of a rogue coal mine in West Virginia — where sparking machinery and built-up gases led to an explosion that killed 29 men last year — has agreed to pay a record $209 million penalty and make historic changes to protect miners from harm, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The settlement with Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, which bought the parent company of the mine, Massey Energy, is more than 40 times larger than any previous fine for a coal disaster. It came 20 months after the blast at the Upper Big Branch mine, the worst U.S. mining disaster in 40 years.

Also Tuesday, a new government report detailed the world inside the mine on April 5, 2010 — where modern men went underground to face problems out of the 19th century. Miners worked amid pockets of neck-high water and buildups of explosive methane and coal dust. Their bosses kept two sets of safety logs, a real one and a fake one to show government inspectors.

“If basic safety measures had been in place,” said the report, from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, there would have been no loss of life.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/owner-of-wva-coal-mine-agrees-to-pay-a-209-million-penalty-for-fatal-explosion/2011/12/06/gIQA166xaO_story.html