Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
My colleague Mike Lillis documents the fact that the Massey Energy coal mine that just killed almost 30 miners was shut down for safety violations an astonishing 61 times in the previous 15 months leading up to the explosion.
The Upper Big Branch Mine, the site of the explosion that's killed at least 25 miners, was either fully or partly closed 61 times for safety reasons in 2009 and 2010, the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. is reporting this afternoon, citing Labor Department documents prepared for Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).Officials from the department's Mine Safety and Health Administration issued 54 withdrawal orders to the Upper Big Branch Mine in 2009 and seven so far in 2010, according to the documents.
He also explains how the mining companies prevent permanent shutdowns by continually challenging the government's orders in court:
Fifty-four of those withdrawal orders "were issued when inspectors found Massey subsidiary Performance Coal exhibited an 'unwarrantable failure' to comply with federal health and safety standards," Ward writes.There's a distinction to be made here. Issuing withdrawal orders is different than closing the mine altogether, which would require MSHA to get court approval first. In cases of closure, officials would have to prove that mine operators showed "a pattern of violations" -- a step that's been complicated by the skyrocketing number of appeals being filed by mining companies to protest citations. (After all, how do you prove a pattern based on violations that are in dispute?)
Indeed, MSHA never even tried to cite the Upper Big Branch for such a pattern, despite the fact that more than 1,300 citations were filed against the mine in the last five years.
The sheer volume of citations seems to have shocked even those lawmakers who follow the coal industry most closely. "This mine has certainly exhibited a pattern of violations," Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) told Fox News Wednesday.
Which of course explains why Blankenship buys his own judges.
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Former WV Supreme Court Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard is running against Rep. Nick Rahall, who has represented the third congressional district since 1977. Spike is Mr. Blankenship's good friend, hanging out with Blankenship in Monte Carlo at the same time that Massey was appealing a $50 million jury verdict to the court on which Maynard sat.
And one might ask why on earth Joe Manchin thought it was a good idea to ride in a Massey Energy jet from Florida to WV on the night of the mine disaster.
Posted by: Buckeye | April 12, 2010 9:24 AM
Massey also operates in Kentucky, and has a similar reputation for poor safety, environmental abuses, and close relationships with local and state politicos. If you've never lived in a coal mining state, especially one in the Appalachian range, you can't begin to fathom the influence coal mining companies have on politics, local sheriffs, and even inspectors. Picture Tammany Hall in the 19th century in NYC, or Boss Daley's machine in Chicago (the old Daley, not the son) and you'll have an idea of what's like in WV, KY and other states.
Coal is big money, and sadly the mining companies made sure they would never have to pay steep severance taxes to the eastern coal states. So the states don't share much of the lucre. Meanwhile, the companies have raped the land to get the coal. Driving along some parts of eastern KY is like driving on a different planet-- no trees, no mountain tops, just dirt and big furrows in the ground. Even my arch-conservative ex-father-in-law was appalled when he went to visit some cousins in Harlan County.
It's sad (but oh so predictable) that it took a fatal mine disaster to call public attention to Massey's abuses. Believe me, what we know now is just the tip of the iceberg.
Posted by: wheatdogg | April 12, 2010 11:04 AM
Have you looked at the stock price? There's a clue there: the market knows that the Government knows that the public has a short attention span.
At worst, they'll do the Chinese Option and throw Blankenship under the bus for letting it happen too close to an important election and managing to actually get his face on the news.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 12, 2010 11:11 AM
I find it hard to believe that Massey Energy can get out of 1300 citations, shutdowns, and other violations by simply influencing judges and ineptitude from the Mine Safety and Health Administration? Surely, there are other agencies and oversight boards that knew something was going on - and could have done some kind of significant investigation?
Posted by: CW | April 12, 2010 11:12 AM
I'm still waiting to hear the teabaggers claim that the explosion was due to too much gov'mint regllelation.
Posted by: Rob Jase | April 12, 2010 11:14 AM
Just re-read my post, and I realize I wasn't properly conveying my comment. I didn't mean to imply that I did not accept Brayton's argument and claim. I was just musing in general, that it's hard for me to believe that federal oversight was so minimal.
Posted by: CW | April 12, 2010 11:16 AM
From someone who is slowly dying of heavy metals poisoning, including the metal berylium, BELIEVE that our government allows x number of deaths in an industry as necessary.If you go to OSHA's own site you will discover that they never define 'safe' levels of a toxic substance.What they do is define 'maximum acceptable deaths per x number of employees in a given field' or something akin to that.
But maybe now that corporations are people too they can be prosecuted for capital murder? (yeah SD dream on - they murdered you on the installment plan and you simply want vengeance - damn skippy dude)
Ah well, welcome to feudalism kidz.
Posted by: StandingDamaged | April 12, 2010 11:40 AM
Blankenship is one of the most vile, evil pieces of shit I've ever seen. The disregard this man has for the value of human life, the same human life that helps him generate massive profit, and his facile handwashing of what amounts to murder, is mindbogglingly, breathtakingly disgusting. And he can buy the law. Something's gotta give, methinks.
Posted by: how | April 12, 2010 11:48 AM
If the Left and Democrats were willing to fight they'd conflate this issue with the upcoming Supreme Court nomination regarding how the Republicans and the current court's conservatives have consistently sided with Massey and others just like them, especially since CJ Roberts and J. Alito have joined the court. Not from an anti-business/pro-union populist perspective, but instead from the perspective of competence, the cost of incompetence, current and future economic growth factors, and the negative externality costs of coal.
Even the liberal media continues to falsely report that coal provides the cheapest source of electrical energy when its not even close when looking at the more accurately framed economic perspective (rather than how accountants view costs). When you factor in external factors like the human cost and environmental factors, particularly coal's effect on the climate, it is nowhere near as cheap as other sources in this time period onward.
Posted by: Michael Heath | April 12, 2010 12:58 PM
Woah woah woah, this was the same mining company that was involved in that brouhaha a while back about buying a judge on the appeals court? I remember the NY Times had a huge article about that. I didn't remember any of the names, though, until I saw "Blankenship" and I was like, wait, that guy???
Wow, I guess I'm behind that I'm just hearing about this now. But wow. The same company. Damn...
Posted by: James Sweet | April 12, 2010 1:11 PM
Old news. Massey and Blankenship have been giving plenty for years.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | April 12, 2010 1:35 PM
I'm thinking of a nice fictional short story, where some monstrous WV mine owner gets his comeuppance by having the employees of the mine haul his ass off to the mine to make him dig with his bare hands. And doing the same to any who defend said monstrous mine owner.
That's what I hate about reading these mining stories that Ed has pointed me to. It makes me a worse person. So, Fuck You, Blankenship. Fuck you, and fuck the horse you rode in on, too.
Posted by: Shawn Smith | April 12, 2010 1:49 PM
There's a Gordon Lightfoot song, "Boss Man," that seems to fit this situation.
Posted by: Chris Winter | April 12, 2010 2:34 PM
Rob Jase:
I can't speak for the Tea Protesters, but if they were to say this, they'd be correct. Mines are typically constructed by the miners and miners are typically required to provide their own tools and/or rent them, so having a capitalist backer adds absolutely nothing to the productive process. The only reason that mining is structured the way that it is (as opposed to a more sensible system of worker ownership, in which case workers would take suitable actions to protect themselves) is because of government provision of title to unimproved land to the capitalist, which is about the most odious regulation imaginable.
Posted by: Miko | April 12, 2010 7:28 PM