Massey Energy suggests big April mine disaster was act of God or a giant burst of methane gas

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship made the national media rounds in Washington yesterday, spreading the message that coal-mine disasters like the one that killed 29 miners at a Massey mine in West Virginia in April, are often unavoidable acts of God. "I’m a realist. The politicians will tell you we’re going to do something so this never happens again; you won’t hear me say that," Blankenship told the National Press Club. "I believe that the physics of natural law and God trump whatever man tries to do. Whether you get earthquakes underground, whether you get broken floors, whether you get gas inundations, whether you get roof falls, oftentimes they are unavoidable just as other accidents are in society."

Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog, "At a news conference Massey went into 'Act of God' mode in full force today, blaming the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster on a gigantic outburst of methane into the mine that company officials say there was little — if anything — they could do to control." Ward, the top coal reporter in the country, notes that he wasn't allowed to participate in the post-conference phone call between Massey and reporters because he wasn't on Massey's approved media list.

Massey seemingly pointed to an "unexpected release of methane gas into the UBB mine" that "was intense and overwhelming to the normal safety systems" as a possible cause for the disaster in a news release. Davitt McAteer, West Virgina Gov. Joe Manchin’s special investigator for the disaster, told Ward Massey was likely shifting blame in the wrong direction. "The effort to place blame on God or another person is not an uncommon practice after disasters, particularly in the mining industry," he said. "But investigations have almost always led to the conclusion that it wasn’t God who did it." (Read more)