Thursday, December 08, 2011
Alpha Natural Resources has been ordered to pay the largest penalty ever for a mining disaster. The company will pay $209 million in restitution and civil and criminal penalties for owning Massey Energy, the notorious mining business that operated the Upper Big Branch mine in 2010 when an explosion killed 29 men in West Virginia.
Survivors of the accident and families of victims will receive $46.5 million of the settlement. The deal includes $80 million for safety and infrastructure improvements, $48 million for mine safety academic research and $10.8 million in fines.
No criminal indictments were included in the announcement by the federal government, disappointing families who were hoping to see either current or former Massey executives go to jail.
Federal mining laws, considered weak by miner advocates, deem safety violations as misdemeanors, with the exception of falsifying records. But according to news reports last June, Massey leaders mislead mine inspectors by keeping two books of records—one of which that contained accounts of safety violations that were never shown to the government.
Meanwhile, Massey’s former top executive, Don Blankenship, is trying to get back into the coal mining business. Blankenship filed incorporation papers in Kentucky to start a new company, McCoy Coal Group Inc. The former Massey CEO left the company a year ago with $12 million in severance pay, a two-year consulting contract, and large pension and retirement packages.
Representative George Miller (D-CA) said it would be appalling if Blankenship returned to the mining industry. “I would be stunned to find out that any state issued him a permit to run a coal mine,” Miller told ABC News. “They’re endangering their citizens if they do.”
–Noel Brinkerhoff
Mine Owner Will Pay $209 Million in Blast that Killed 29 Workers (by Sabrina Tavernise and Clifford Krauss, New York Times)
Is Massey Boss Mining Coal Again? (by David Kerley, Matthew Mosk and Matt Hosford, ABC News)
Feds: Massey Faked Mine Records to Deceive Inspectors (by Michael Winter, USA Today)
Culture Kills—The Legacy of Massey Energy (by Gael O’Brien, The Week in Ethics)
Energy Giant Alpha Natural Resources Agrees to Mine Disaster Settlement (by Seth Cline, Open Secrets)
FBI Hints at Criminal Charges in Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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