Back in April 2010, an underground explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia killed 29 miners in the worst mining disaster to take place in this country since 1970. Late Thursday, the former owner of the mine was indicted on federal charges that he not only flagrantly disregarded mine safety standards, but actively covered up those violations.
A grand jury sitting in Charleston, the state capital, indicted Don Blankenship, the former CEO and chairman of Massey Energy Company, was indicted on four counts of conspiracy, defrauding the Mine Safety and Health Administration, securities fraud, and lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Read the indictment here. It alleges that Blankenship was the mastermind of a conspiracy to violate mine safety and health standards over at least a two-year period leading up to the disaster.? Blankenship and several unindicted co-conspirators are also charged with covering up violations in order to throw the MSHA off the scent. Blankenship is also charged with falsely telling shareholders that he did not condone safety violations–a false statement that was also filed with the SEC.
According to federal prosecutors, between 2008 and 2010 Upper Big Branch was cited for 835 safety violations–roughly one violation per day, according to Mother Jones. Of those violations, 283 of them were for violations of standards regarding ventilation of methane gas and coal dust. The latter is important, since the explosion was triggered by a massive ignition of methane and coal dust. As staggering as that number is, there were almost certainly more. However, prosecutors say that officials at Upper Big Branch–with Blankenship’s knowledge and encouragement–devised secret codes by which Upper Big Branch workers were alerted as long as two hours in advance of MSHA inspections.
The indictment portrays Blankenship as a man concerned with keeping the coal churning out of the mine–and everything else, including safety, be damned. He bombarded executives at the Upper Big Branch site with memos telling them to keep running coal–even if it meant putting aside needed work to ensure adequate ventilation and prevent explosions, collapses, and flooding. In at least two of those memos, he told mine executives that he didn’t want the mine operated like a construction site. He set mining quotas so high that workers didn’t have time to build ventilation systems. He also ordered that several miners whose jobs involved more safety compliance than actual coal production be fired, saying keeping such miners on the payroll was “ridiculous” and “(l)iterally crazy.”
The result was a situation so unsafe that even veteran miners lived in active fear. And yet, they knew not to question such practices as disabling a methane gas monitor because it kept shutting down the mining machine. Those fears came to pass when the mine exploded four years ago–an explosion triggered by a massive ignition of methane and coal dust. How bad was it? Rescuers had to pull back at least twice because methane levels were still off the scale even though there was no active mining. As a result, it’s likely that the four miners who survived the initial blast would have died before anyone could have reached them.
Massey has already paid the ultimate price for this criminal act. In January 2011–a month after Blankenship retired–Massey was forced to merge with Alpha Natural Resources. Any company that acts with this kind of blatant disregard for its workers and/or the general public should share the same fate–forfeiture of its right to exist. Later in 2011, Alpha reached a $209 million settlement with the Justice Department and paid $10.8 million in civil penalties to the MSHA–in both cases, the largest amounts ever paid for a mine disaster in American history. Two Massey executives have already pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the disaster. Blankenship, however, shows no sign of such contrition. Through his lawyer, he claimed that the charges were an attempt to silence his “outspoken criticism of powerful bureaucrats.”
If there’s one thing to be disappointed about in this indictment, it’s that Blankenship isn’t charged with manslaughter in the deaths of the 29 miners. After all, the memos show that Blankenship knew or had reason to know that conditions at the mine were unsafe, and yet was concerned about running coal above all else. About the only thing I can think of is that prosecutors didn’t think they could prove Blankenship knew that people could die as a result of his nonfeasance and misfeasance. If that’s the case, then hopefully prosecutors will press for something close to the maximum sentence of 31 years in prison if Blankenship is convicted. Given the egregiousness of Blankenship’s misconduct, anything less than 15 years would be a joke.
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.
Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
