When you're talking about a company where the CEO took one supreme court justice to the French Riviera and spent over $3 million to get a friendly judge elected, it's clear that the boundary between what's right and what can be bought is a little blurry. So this should come as no surprise.
Sources familiar with the investigation say the FBI is looking into possible bribery of officials of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that inspects and regulates mining. The sources say FBI agents are also exploring potential criminal negligence on the part of Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine.
And when you think about Massey and their CEO, it's worth remembering that they don't just hold cheap the lives of the people working in the mines. Massey is also #1 producer of coal through mountaintop removal. It's Massey mines that have destroyed the community at Kayford Mountain, Massey that is trying to destroy the site of one of the best potential wind farms anywhere in the country on Coal River Mountain, and Massey that spilled 8.9 billion gallons of toxic sludge from the impoundment at Brushy Fork. Another of Massey's huge sludge impoundments is located directly above an elementary school.
When these guys play fast and loose with safety, it affects us all. While the FBI is checking, it wouldn't hurt to see how some of these permits to bury rivers and destroy communities slipped past the people who were supposed to be enforcing the rules.