It looks like Massey Energy may have been the most tone-deaf company in the nation. At least that's the way it seems based on its internal review of the Upper Big Branch disaster. The report, released late Friday, claims that the explosion which killed 29 miners was an unpreventable accident.
Massey's report concluded that the accident at its Upper Big Branch Mine was a naturally occurring event caused by an inundation of natural gas that was beyond its control. Massey's findings contradict an independent report released in May by J. Davitt McAteer, top mine regulator in the Clinton administration. Massey disagreed with the earlier report's findings at the time.
Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette managed to get his hands on the actual report. It's simply breathtaking in its ignorance of overwhelming evidence that Massey knowingly turned Upper Big Branch into a death trap. It also devotes a lot of space to attacking the MSHA, even going as far as to accuse it of entrapment by "coerc(ing) the company into destroying evidence by applying rock dust and water to areas still under investigation."
Massey's new owner, Alpha Natural Resources, is not at all pleased that this report came out two days after it closed on its purchase of Massey.
Alpha, which said it has not reviewed the report, criticized its release, calling it "unauthorized." Alpha said it had told Massey that releasing the report before such a review was inappropriate.
"Alpha will conduct its own review into the events at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine and intends to fully cooperate with pending government investigations," Alpha said.
McAteer scoffed at the report, basically saying it was based on junk science. And he isn't the only one who isn't buying the contentions. Ward called BS on it in his blog on the coal industry. He managed to get ahold of Congressman Nick Rahall (Upper Big Branch is located in his district), who said it doesn't explain why Massey let the mine run if it was truly unsafe.
Inman, per NYT, is a professor of national policy at the University of Texas. Tell him what you think of his idiocy at inman at mail.utexas.edu.