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#1
posted to rec.boats
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I owe my soul to the company store...
May 19, 2011
Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds By SABRINA TAVERNISE NYT WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.” The report, released Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin III, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards. But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in the worst American mining disaster in 40 years. “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.” In a statement on Thursday, Massey Energy’s general counsel, Shane Harvey, disputed some of the report’s findings. Seventeen company executives refused to be interviewed, a choice Mr. McAteer called “most unfortunate.” The 120-page report offered a scathing indictment of Massey practices at the mine, called Upper Big Branch, pieced together through months of interviews, and analyzing documents, data and correspondence. Workers at the mine knew that conditions were bad, and the report opens with a passage about one miner’s fears the day before he died in the disaster. “Man, they got us up there mining, and we ain’t got no air,” the miner, Gary Wayne Quarles, told a friend, who talked to investigators. “I’m just scared to death to go to work because I’m just scared to death something bad is going to happen.” The report goes on to say that a “perfect storm” was brewing inside the mine, of poor ventilation, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning and combustible coal dust, “behaving like a line of gunpowder carrying the blast forward in multiple directions.” Investigators flatly rejected the conclusion offered by Massey officials — that the explosion occurred because a giant burst of methane bubbled from the ground, an event that would have been impossible to predict or control. For more, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us...e.html?_r=1&hp |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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I owe my soul to the company store...
On Thu, 19 May 2011 16:54:46 -0400, Harryk
wrote: May 19, 2011 Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds By SABRINA TAVERNISE NYT WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.” The report, released Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin III, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards. But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in the worst American mining disaster in 40 years. “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.” In a statement on Thursday, Massey Energy’s general counsel, Shane Harvey, disputed some of the report’s findings. Seventeen company executives refused to be interviewed, a choice Mr. McAteer called “most unfortunate.” The 120-page report offered a scathing indictment of Massey practices at the mine, called Upper Big Branch, pieced together through months of interviews, and analyzing documents, data and correspondence. Workers at the mine knew that conditions were bad, and the report opens with a passage about one miner’s fears the day before he died in the disaster. “Man, they got us up there mining, and we ain’t got no air,” the miner, Gary Wayne Quarles, told a friend, who talked to investigators. “I’m just scared to death to go to work because I’m just scared to death something bad is going to happen.” The report goes on to say that a “perfect storm” was brewing inside the mine, of poor ventilation, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning and combustible coal dust, “behaving like a line of gunpowder carrying the blast forward in multiple directions.” Investigators flatly rejected the conclusion offered by Massey officials — that the explosion occurred because a giant burst of methane bubbled from the ground, an event that would have been impossible to predict or control. For more, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us...e.html?_r=1&hp The people responsible for these decisions should be prosecuted and in jail. Of course, that'll never happen since industry lobbyists will spread whatever sum of cash around DC to ensure that congress hasn't the numbers to pursue. Will the justice department pursue? They don't seem to have the stomach to prosecute white collar crime in other than the most egregious cases, of which this might be one. |
#3
posted to rec.boats
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I owe my soul to the company store...
jps wrote:
On Thu, 19 May 2011 16:54:46 -0400, wrote: May 19, 2011 Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds By SABRINA TAVERNISE NYT WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.” The report, released Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin III, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards. But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in the worst American mining disaster in 40 years. “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.” In a statement on Thursday, Massey Energy’s general counsel, Shane Harvey, disputed some of the report’s findings. Seventeen company executives refused to be interviewed, a choice Mr. McAteer called “most unfortunate.” The 120-page report offered a scathing indictment of Massey practices at the mine, called Upper Big Branch, pieced together through months of interviews, and analyzing documents, data and correspondence. Workers at the mine knew that conditions were bad, and the report opens with a passage about one miner’s fears the day before he died in the disaster. “Man, they got us up there mining, and we ain’t got no air,” the miner, Gary Wayne Quarles, told a friend, who talked to investigators. “I’m just scared to death to go to work because I’m just scared to death something bad is going to happen.” The report goes on to say that a “perfect storm” was brewing inside the mine, of poor ventilation, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning and combustible coal dust, “behaving like a line of gunpowder carrying the blast forward in multiple directions.” Investigators flatly rejected the conclusion offered by Massey officials — that the explosion occurred because a giant burst of methane bubbled from the ground, an event that would have been impossible to predict or control. For more, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us...e.html?_r=1&hp The people responsible for these decisions should be prosecuted and in jail. Of course, that'll never happen since industry lobbyists will spread whatever sum of cash around DC to ensure that congress hasn't the numbers to pursue. Will the justice department pursue? They don't seem to have the stomach to prosecute white collar crime in other than the most egregious cases, of which this might be one. Hey...just a bunch of working stiffs were killed...certainly not important enough to ruffle the feathers of our corporationist society. Reckless endangerment and manslaughter, with a mininum 10-year prison term for the mine operators would be appropriate. |
#4
posted to rec.boats
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I owe my soul to the company store...
On 21/05/2011 9:53 AM, Harryk wrote:
jps wrote: On Thu, 19 May 2011 16:54:46 -0400, wrote: May 19, 2011 Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds By SABRINA TAVERNISE NYT WASHINGTON — In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.” The report, released Thursday by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, Joe Manchin III, and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards. But it was more pointed in naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in the worst American mining disaster in 40 years. “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.” In a statement on Thursday, Massey Energy’s general counsel, Shane Harvey, disputed some of the report’s findings. Seventeen company executives refused to be interviewed, a choice Mr. McAteer called “most unfortunate.” The 120-page report offered a scathing indictment of Massey practices at the mine, called Upper Big Branch, pieced together through months of interviews, and analyzing documents, data and correspondence. Workers at the mine knew that conditions were bad, and the report opens with a passage about one miner’s fears the day before he died in the disaster. “Man, they got us up there mining, and we ain’t got no air,” the miner, Gary Wayne Quarles, told a friend, who talked to investigators. “I’m just scared to death to go to work because I’m just scared to death something bad is going to happen.” The report goes on to say that a “perfect storm” was brewing inside the mine, of poor ventilation, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning and combustible coal dust, “behaving like a line of gunpowder carrying the blast forward in multiple directions.” Investigators flatly rejected the conclusion offered by Massey officials — that the explosion occurred because a giant burst of methane bubbled from the ground, an event that would have been impossible to predict or control. For more, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us...e.html?_r=1&hp The people responsible for these decisions should be prosecuted and in jail. Of course, that'll never happen since industry lobbyists will spread whatever sum of cash around DC to ensure that congress hasn't the numbers to pursue. Will the justice department pursue? They don't seem to have the stomach to prosecute white collar crime in other than the most egregious cases, of which this might be one. Hey...just a bunch of working stiffs were killed...certainly not important enough to ruffle the feathers of our corporationist society. Reckless endangerment and manslaughter, with a mininum 10-year prison term for the mine operators would be appropriate. Does that include the union man who did nothing? LMAO. -- Take a look at ANY country, more debt is more problems. So why do we allow our governments more debt? Selfishness, greed, denial, ignorance? |
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