West Virginia Mine Disaster Sends Massey Shares Down
April 6, 2010, 12:03 PM ET
Tragedy hit West Virginia coal mining country on Monday.
The latest word is that 25 people were killed in an explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine in the southern part of the state. (MarketBeat’s thoughts are with those who lost friends or family.)
Unsurprisingly, Massey shares are down quite a bit Tuesday in the wake of the disaster. At last glance they were off more than 9%, falling below $50 a share.
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
Oooh! Isn't it ever so sad? Massey Energy stock prices have FALLEN!
Never mind that 25 persons are dead, with possibly more dead to be recovered. And, isn't it ever so nice that MarketBeat is a teensy bit sad and its tiny bit of human compassion allows that their "thoughts are with those who lost friends or family...."
Massey Energy Has History of Mining Safety Violations
The West Virginia mining disaster, which occurred on Monday when an explosion tore through Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, has killed at least 25, the latest reports indicate. Worse, the incident may have been preventable: Massey Energy has a history of safety violations.
While the cause of the explosion is still not known, safety officials say Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, in the town of Montcoal, has been cited in the past for failing to properly vent methane. Methane is highly combustible, and is suspected in the blast.
Additionally, NPR, reporting on the disaster, noted that Massey Energy has been cited for "hundreds of safety violations" in the past. The Upper Big Branch mine disaster has to remind the public of the Sago Mine disaster which took place in Sago, West Virginia in 2006. In that case, a blast trapped 13 miners for nearly two days, Only one miner survived. The Sago mine was likewise the recipient of numerous safety violations.
http://www.huliq.com/...
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship sneers at the mere idea of mine safety and the shocking nonsense of climate change, as nicely told in The Rolling Stone article by Tim Dickenson, The Climate Killers:
The Coal Baron: Don Blankenship: CEO, Massey Energy
In an age when most CEOs are canny enough to at least pay lip service to the realities of climate change, Blankenship stands apart as corporate America's most unabashed denier. Global warming, he insists, is nothing but "a hoax and a Ponzi scheme." His fortune depends on such lies: Massey Energy, the nation's fourth-largest coal-mining operation, unearths more than 40 million tons of the fossil fuel each year — often by blowing the tops off of Appalachian mountains.
The country's highest-paid coal executive, Blankenship is a villain ripped straight from the comic books: a jowly, mustache-sporting, union-busting coal baron who uses his fortune to bend politics to his will. He recently financed a $3.5 million campaign to oust a state Supreme Court justice who frequently ruled against his company, and he hung out on the French Riviera with another judge who was weighing an appeal by Massey. "Don Blankenship would actually be less powerful if he were in elected office," Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia once observed. "He would be twice as accountable and half as feared."
On the national level, Blankenship enjoys a position of influence on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has led the fight to kill climate legislation. He enjoys inveighing against the "greeniacs" — including Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Al Gore — who are "taking over the world." And he has even taken to tweeting about climate change: "We must demand that more coal be burned to save the Earth from global cooling."
http://www.rollingstone.com/...
When you think of coal, think of those who died at Upper Branch.
And those who died at Sago.
And those who died in the Crandall Canyon mining disaster, (how lucky that the mine's owner was a huge contributor to the Republican Party:
The Utah mine disaster: A tragic consequence of government-industry collusion
8 August 2007
The Utah mine disaster, which has left six miners trapped 1,500 feet below ground, is but the latest tragic result of the collusion between the US government and the American mining industry. The health and safety of miners are wantonly sacrificed to boost the profits of the coal companies.
.... The Utah miners were trapped below ground at the Crandall Canyon Mine when the mine collapsed some 3.4 miles from the portal in the early morning hours of August 6. The US Geological Survey reported that an earthquake of 3.9 magnitude rocked the region shortly before 3 a.m. Monday, local time. However, scientists at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations said they believed the recorded movement in the area was not a quake, but rather was "consistent with a mine-type collapse." Since the mid-1990s, at least half a dozen other mine collapses have caused similar seismic waves.
.... The founder, chairman, president and CEO of Murray Energy is Robert Murray, a major donor to the Republican Party who is well connected to the Bush administration and the Republican congressional leadership. At an extraordinary press conference held at the mine site Tuesday, Murray gave vent to the despotic outlook prevalent among mine owners. Evidently, no section of the mass media had any qualms about allowing the mine boss to serve as the primary source of information to the public on the reasons for the cave-in and the state of the rescue operation.
Standing alongside Murray was Al Davis, the chief MSHA official for the region. The participation of Davis in a joint press conference with the mine owner was itself indicative of the real relationship between the industry and the federal agency nominally mandated to police it. The collusion has reached the point where even the pretense of government independence and oversight is barely maintained.
http://www.wsws.org/...
Oh, and dear Mr. Murray is ever so tight with Senator Mitch McConnell, KY:
WASHINGTON - Millionaire coal magnate Bob Murray knew the name to drop in September 2002, when Mine Safety Health Administration inspectors confronted him about safety problems at his mines: Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Murray, a large man with a fierce temper, is a huge donor to Republican senators. McConnell, R-Ky., rose through the ranks by raising money for those senators. And McConnell is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, whose agency oversees MSHA.
Shouting at a table full of MSHA officials at their district office in Morgantown, W.Va., Murray said: "Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss," according to notes of the meeting. "They," Murray added, pointing at two MSHA men, "are gone."
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/...
Fortunately, Elaine Chao, the sort of wife of Mitch McConnell, is no longer Labor Secretary. But, I wonder how many of Bush's mining buddies are still overseeing the Mine Safety Health Administration.
It just seems to me that "clean" coal is indelibly branded with the names of those who have died in the treacherous mines. And I think we need to build a sordid Hall of Shame for the likes of Don Blankenship, Robert Murray, Mitch McConnell, and all those who shamefully collaborated in the many mine disasters of our safety-negative nation.
Another little footnote: all the mines named are NON-UNION MINES.