Honoring lost miners 10 years after Upper Big Branch blast

Judy Jones Peterson looks at a photo of her brother, who
died in the mine explosion. (NPR photo by Howard Berkes)

Ten years ago yesterday, 29 coal miners lost their lives during an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia. An episode of West Virginia Public Broadcasting's "Inside Appalachia" remembers those who died and explores how the families, artists and communities have memorialized those lost. Click here to the episode.

The episode features an interview with husband and wife playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, who wrote a play about the disaster called "Coal Country."

Blank and Jensen drew on hours of interviews and court testimony for inspiration, Jeff Young reports for Ohio Valley ReSource. The play opened to critical acclaim at The Public Theater in New York City on March 3, but was postponed after two weeks because of the pandemic.

Blank and Jensen, who live in Brooklyn, New York, said they had a hard time getting family members to return their calls when they first became interested in writing a play, but had a much easier time after they began traveling to Charleston and having long visits with the families, Young reports. Jensen, who grew up in the rural Midwest, said he could relate to the mining families, and both say they hope the play will help urban audiences better understand life in coal country.

Though "Coal Country" isn't a musical, country rock singer Steve Earle wrote songs for it that he performs as accompaniment. "Earle sits on stage with a guitar or banjo and listens intently to the actors, then adds a song that might echo a characters’ loss or hint at deeper themes. Jensen described his role as akin to a Greek chorus of one," Young reports.

On April 5, Earle gave a livestreamed performance of the songs online, which you can listen to here.

U.S. coal employment decline led by Appalachia

U.S. Energy Information Administration chart; click on the image to enlarge it.

Coal mining employment in the U.S. has declined 42 percent since 2011 as coal demand has decreased. Appalachia has by far the largest share of coal miners among the three U.S. coal regions, but it has also seen the most dramatic drop in coal jobs, according to an article about one facet of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Annual Coal Report. Nationwide, U.S. coal mining employment fell from a high of 92,000 in 2011 to 54,000 in 2018. In Appalachia, it was almost cut in half, falling from 60,269 in 2011 to 30,620 in 2018.

"Appalachian mines tend to be smaller than mines in the Interior and Western regions and to use labor-intensive underground mining techniques, as opposed to machinery-intensive longwall mining and surface mining operations," the report notes. "A slight increase in coal-mining employment in the Appalachia region from 2016 to 2018 corresponded to an increase in coal exports because this region is the dominant source of coal shipped overseas." But most export coal is metallurgical, used in steelmaking, not thermal, which is burned in power plants to make electricity.

The number of operating coal mines has also declined over the past decade, with Appalachia also seeing the biggest drop. And though coal production declined nationally, and Western coal fields have long been the most productive,the production decline was concentrated in Appalachia, which lost almost half its production. "More than half of the region’s mines have closed since 2008, and production has fallen from 390 million tons in 2008 to 200 million tons in 2018," the report says.

Navajo and Hopi tribes scramble to find new revenue after closure of coal-fired power plant, largest in Western U.S.

Navajo Generating Station employee Alex Tsinnjinnie
at work. (AZ Republic photo by Mark Henle)

The Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the West, stopped making electricity Monday after 45 years, Ryan Randazzo and Shondlin Silversmith report for The Arizona Republic.

The 2,250-megawatt plant's closure is a deep blow to the economies of Native American tribes. The plant is in Page, Ariz. (pop. 7,247), on Navajo Nation land and most of the employees were Navajo or Hopi. Plant jobs paid much better than most other jobs nearby, and revenue, taxes and royalties from coal made up most of the Hopi budget and a third of the Navajo operating budget, Laurel Morales reports for Arizona State University's Cronkite News. 

Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma estimated that as much as 85 percent of his tribe's general fund budget will be affected by the closure, at least a $12 million revenue loss. Navajo leaders estimated at $30 million to $50 million decline in coal revenues for 2020, Randazzo and Silversmith report. Leaders for both tribes are considering ways to make up the shortfall, including mineral and land development, casinos, renewable energy ventures, and tourism.

The plant had been problematic for years because of the pollution it generated. In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency struck a deal with the plant's owners to keep it running at two-thirds capacity. Then area utilities voted to close the plant two years ago; they co-own the plant with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The owners, along with the Navajo and Hopi tribes, tried to keep the plant running, but Arizona's federal Salt River Project, which owns the largest share of the plant, announced a year ago it would close the plant if a buyer could not be found. CEO Mike Hummel said the station was closing because it's cheaper to produce electricity from natural gas and renewable energy sources and easier to comply with air-quality regulations, Randazzo and Shondlin report.

Before operations began winding down two years ago, the plant employed 750 people, nearly all Native Americans. Most of the miners have been laid off, though some will work on reclaiming the land. Most plant workers have transferred to new Salt River Project jobs, many in Phoenix—a four-hour drive away. Some plant workers turned down the SRP jobs because they didn't want to leave their communities, Morales reports.

Blackjewel bankruptcy halts mine work in 4 states; unpaid Ky. miners block train; auction could reopen some mines

The bankruptcy of coal company Blackjewel LLC put more than 1,000 miners out of work in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Wyoming, and sparked a peaceful protest among miners in Eastern Kentucky whose paychecks bounced. But there was hope of some miners getting their jobs back with an auction scheduled today in federal bankruptcy court.

The Associated Press reported: “Bristol, Tennessee-based Contura Energy last week offered $20.6 million as the stalking horse bidder for two mines in Wyoming and one in West Virginia . . . The purchase could put hundreds back to work at the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Wyoming and Pax Surface Mine in Scarbro, W.Va. They've been closed since Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 1. According to the bidding process, other qualifying bids made by Wednesday's deadline triggered the auction. The notice didn't disclose the other bids. . . . Blackjewel also operates mines in Kentucky and Virginia, and the fate of those depends on the outcome of the bidding process.”

In Kentucky, where miners blocked railroad tracks to prevent Blackjewel from transporting coal, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the coal company failed to comply with state regulations that would have protected miners from losing pay for work they did.

Chris Kenning of the Courier Journal drove the 225 miles from Louisville to Harlan, which has seen coal booms and busts for a century, and reported that the Blackjewel debacle "roiled Harlan with unusual intensity . . . Difficult talks are playing out over dinner tables across Harlan County: whether to ride out such bankruptcies, sticking with coal as long as possible; leave home for steadier coal jobs in places like Alabama; or bet on a new career as local leaders try to attract new employers. The question on everyone’s mind: whether to quit coal, or wait until coal quits you."

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, issued a statement Thursday, criticizing Blackjewel and calling for federal assistance for miners affected by the coal company’s bankruptcy.

“I fully understand the number of coal companies that continue to struggle in the aftermath of the War on Coal, but undercutting employees who invested their time and talents to mine one of our greatest natural resources, is a shameful way to conduct business. Our coal miners deserve better and I will continue fighting for them," he said.

Rogers said he’s working to expedite assistance. The U.S. Department of Labor sent staff to Kentucky to interview the employees, he said.

He commended SOAR – Shaping Our Appalachian Region – for providing a tour bus to transport local coal miners to the hearing in Charleston on Monday.

The general manager of WYMT-TV, a CBS affiliate in nearby Hazard, weighed in with an editorial. Neil Middleton, who grew up in the region, called Blackjewel’s actions “shameful.” He wrote, “The peaceful protest is gaining support from across the state and country. More than 1,100 miners in Kentucky, Wyoming, West Virginia and Virginia lost their jobs when the bankrupt company shut down. The miners' paychecks bounced, leaving hundreds overdrawn and needing help. And in my opinion, a full investigation is warranted. Blackjewel has filed bankruptcy, but the court has not ordered the company to pay the miners back. State Representative Adam Bowling is crafting legislation to compel the company to pay the miners' back wages. Let's hope he is successful. The miners did the work. They earned their wages. They should be paid.”

Justice sues Justice, so to speak: Feds seek $4.7 million in fines owed by coal companies owned by W.Va. governor

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice

"The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil lawsuit against 23 coal companies owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, seeking more than $4.7 million in unpaid fines and fees for mine safety and health violations," Brittany Patterson reports for West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

The DOJ said in a news release that companies being sued racked up almost 2,300 safety and health violations in the past five years, and ignored multiple demands by several federal agencies to pay the debts. The companies are in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, Patterson reports.

Investigative reporting over the past few years brought Justice's debts to the public's attention. A 2016 investigation by NPR, the Ohio Valley ReSource and WVPB "found that Justice’s mines owed $2.6 million in overdue mines safety fines, as well as millions more in unpaid tax debt," Patterson notes. An OVR story last month revealed that the amount had increased to $4.3 million. "That meant the Justice companies had by far the highest delinquent mine safety debt in the U.S. mining industry," Park reports. "And it was also far more than the companies owed when Justice ran for governor in 2016, when he pledged to make good on such debts."

Ky. jury awards $67.5 million to miners whose defective dust masks (and smoking) caused black lung

A jury in Knott County, Ky., awarded $67.5 million to two former coal miners who alleged that defective dust masks led to their debilitating black-lung disease, one of the largest judgments ever in an Eastern Kentucky civil suit, Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald Leader.

3M Company, which made the masks, was hit with $62.5 million of that total in punitive damages. The rest is for past and future pain and suffering for the defendents, brothers Leslie and Michael Cox.

During the three-week trial, the jury ruled that the respirators were so defective that an ordinarily prudent company wouldn't have put them on the market for use, and that 3M acted with reckless disregard from the Cox brothers' safety. No liability was assigned to the more than one dozen mine employers where the brothers had worked.

But the jury ruled that the brothers' heavy smoking habits contributed to their black lung disease, and that 3M was only responsible for 40 percent of Leslie Cox's lung injury and 30 percent for Michael Cox. "That means 3M would be liable for that percentage of the jury's award for compensatroy damages, which was $3.75 million for Leslie Cox and $1.25 million for Michael Cox," Estep reports. "However, 3M would be liable for all the punitive-damage amount if the judgment stands."

Appeals court rejects theory that it doesn't matter where coal mined when it comes to carbon dioxide

Coal mining in the Powder River Basin. (Bureau of Land Management photo)

A federal appeals court ruled last week that the Bureau of Land Management did not adequately consider the environmental impact of greenlighting four large coal mines in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, and thus violated the National Environmental Policy Act. "The BLM concluded in 2010 that if companies were not allowed to mine the coal on federal land in Wyoming, the demand for coal would still be so high that it would be mined somewhere else, so the carbon-dioxide emissions would be the same whether the federal leases were approved or not. The Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled Friday that the BLM’s conclusion did not withstand scrutiny," Timothy Cama reports for The Hill.

BLM's decisions for leasing coal often hinge on the "perfect substitution" theory, which assumes that coal will be mined elsewhere if not at the tract under consideration, and that the prices the coal brings will be the same anywhere. But the court noted that Powder River Basin coal is generally cheaper than coal from other mines, Ellen Gilmer reports for Environment & Energy News.

Judge Mary Beck Briscoe wrote that the BLM showed no proof that coal to be mined in the basin could be easily mined elsewhere at a comparable price. "It did not refer to the nation’s stores of coal or the rates at which those stores may be extracted. Nor did the BLM analyze the specific difference in price between [Powder River Basin] coal and other sources; such a price difference would effect substitutability."

The case marks the first time a federal appeals court has ruled on the "perfect substitution" theory for coal leasing. Jayni Hein, policy director at New York University School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity, told Gilmer "This opinion is significant because it means that future federal agencies cannot just rest on these questionable assumptions and will have to do meaningful analysis as to the actual greenhouse gas emission effects from their leasing decisions."

The ruling could be cited as a precedent in future cases to show that federal agencies must do due diligence in predicting the environmental impacts of decisions, Cama notes.

Bill to aid Appalachian coal communities passes House committee over industry objection

(Lexington Herald-Leader photo)

A bill that would accelerate $1 billion in federal spending to aid struggling coal areas in Appalachia passed a U.S. House committee Tuesday, over the opposition of the National Mining Association.

The RECLAIM Act, which would speed up the release of funds to reclaim abandoned mine lands, is now set to go before the full House, writes Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"One goal would be to reclaim sites in ways that could boost economic development in places that have seen job losses in recent years," Estep reports. Eastern Kentucky alone has lost half its coal jobs since 2011, he notes.

"This bill represents a real investment in coal country — one that will provide much-needed resources to clean up the environment, create jobs and strengthen these communities from the ground up," Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who sponsored the bill, said in a release.

The House Natural Resources Committee approved an amendment to the bill that was backed by more than 40 national or regional environmental and citizens' groups, according to Estep. "The groups said in a letter to the committee that the change was needed to make sure spending would give top priority to projects that tie reclamation to long-term economic development," he writes. Sarah Bowling, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which backed the amendment, was pleased with the vote. "This is a victory for Appalachia and a big day for Kentucky and those communities suffering from the decline of coal," Bowling said in a news release. 

Obama administration denies permit for copper-nickel mine near Minnesota wilderness area

The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday denied a lease for a copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness, a popular tourist destination in northern Minnesota, Dan Kraker reports for MPR News. Kathleen Atkinson, a regional forester with the Forest Service, said "We're concerned about the impacts of copper-nickel mining in sulfide deposits, because there is extensive research that shows that should impacts occur, it would be virtually impossible to mitigate those impacts."

Bob McFarlin, spokesman for Twin Metals Minnesota, which has projected the mine could create 850 jobs and operate for at least 30 years, said, "We believe the action taken by the Bureau of Land Management is contrary to federal law. We've already filed suit, earlier this year, challenging the authority of the bureau to make such a decision. That lawsuit will continue. We believe we will prevail." (Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness map)

The Obama administration "has launched a rare, two-year national environmental review to answer a question that has dogged Minnesotans for years: Is the state’s crown jewel, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, at such risk from copper-nickel mining that trillions of dollars worth of precious metals should remain in the ground for decades in order to protect it?" Josephine Marcotty, reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "If federal regulators decide the answer is yes, they could place much of the watershed of the BWCA off limits to minerals exploration for the next two decades."

"The affected zone—234,000 acres of Superior National Forest land in the Rainy River watershed—is about 50 times bigger than the leases held by Twin Metals Minnesota," Marcotty writes. "It holds some of Minnesota’s primary deposits of precious metals, but it also drains into a pristine and much-loved wilderness. That would put the Boundary Waters on a par with other iconic places across the country, such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and the Front Range in Montana, all of which been granted similar protections."

"But it could cripple Minnesota’s nascent copper mining industry, especially if DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) Gov. Mark Dayton follows through on his pledge to halt new mineral exploration on state-owned lands near the Boundary Waters," Marcotty writes. "Geologists say that about two-thirds of the known precious-metal mineral deposits in Minnesota lie within that watershed, and more than half are controlled by the state and federal governments."

Southwestern Indiana residents deal with overabundance of dust from surface coal mine

Since 2012, state environmental regulators have received many complaints from those who live in Southwest Indiana near the Bear Run Mine, the largest surface coal mine east of the Mississippi. The rules state that mines have to contain dust in their property boundaries. However, the rules also say state officials have to personally observe the dust to do something about it. In four inspections, officials said they couldn't see the dust. "State regulators tell residents that if inspectors don't see the dust clouds, they didn't happen," Ryan Sabalow writes for the IndyStar.

A university public health scientist found high levels of dust in the air and inflammation in residents' blood, "a possible indicator of health problems caused by breathing fire particulate matter," Sabalow writes. Peabody officials claim the mine is safe. "Bear Run Mine operates in a safe, environmentally sound manner and complies with all state and federal air, land and water quality permits," Peabody said in a prepared statement.

In 2011, federal officials asked the mine to put three dust sensors around the property, and they detected unsafe levels of dust more than 150 times in four months. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Peabody a violation notice in 2013, but the enforcement action is still pending.

Indiana University professor Michael Hendryx of the School of Public Health said people who live near surface mines are at risk for very small particles of dust called "ultra fines," which "potentially have a bigger impact on health because they are so small they can penetrate deeply into the lungs and into the bloodstream." Hendryx said he saw what the conditions were like in the area and could smell the dust in the air. He and a research team found that people who live close to the mining operation "had average indoor air-pollution readings nearly three times as high as those living farther away," Sabalow reports. (Read more)

Charges against coal mining giant whose crimes killed 29 get little national coverage -- why?

Robin L. Barton of The Crime Report wonders out loud why "if someone, say, gunned down 29 people in a mall or blew up 29 people in an act of terrorism, there would be tons of press surrounding both the crime itself and the progress of the resulting criminal charges ... but corporate crimes, even the ones involving the deaths of workers, don't seem to be treated like 'real' crimes." She's talking about the crime of allowing illegal and hazardous conditions to persist in violation of federal minimal safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine. The coal mine, owned by Massey Energy, exploded on April 5, 2010, causing the deaths of 29 miners. Barton points to criminal conspiracy charges against a mine supervisor to hide fraudulent record books from federal investigators looking into the disaster. The resulting behavior was deemed so heinous that it resulted a record $209 million in fines and compensation to the families of the dead and injured.

Continuing investigations and more criminal charges are possible. And, yet, marvels the former Manhattan district attorney, every step along the way -- every indictment, every trial, every twist and turn -- the local media like The Charleston Gazette has followed but the nation's biggest mouthpieces have not. She compares this to the coverage given the killing of Trayvon Martin, and wonders where the outrage for the 29 dead in West Virginia is.

Barton writes: "Given the current climate of anger and resentment toward Wall Street and big business, you’d think the public would rally against an employer believed to have wantonly endangered its workforce to benefit the bottom line." She fears corporate safety crime, is not "sexy enough." Or journalists are too overworked. Still, "maybe the public would have protested -- if they were more aware of Massey’s conduct."

Coal industry says court rulings pose obstacles to citizens' court action against strip-mine permits

Coal industry lawyers in West Virginia are using the results of several recent court cases to try to convince a federal judge that citizen groups should have little voice in blocking mountaintop-removal coal mining permits.

Alpha Natural Resources lawyer Shane Harvey told The Charleston Gazette that Judge Robert C. Chambers should be left "with very little ability" to overrule a pending Army Corps of Engineers permit. Citizen groups have asked Chambers to let them challenge at least two Corps permits in the state -- one to Alpha subsidiary Highland Mining in Logan County and another to a mine in Nellis County.

The brief that is causing such a stir points to previous rulings -- a district court ruling, an appeals court decision contrary to a Chambers ruling, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision -- all of which had the effect of quashing public input. Reporter Ken Ward Jr. writes that Chambers didn't initially agree with Harvey's position that federal judges should "defer to the corps' review of applications for the Clean Water Act 'dredge and fill' applications," which are essential to mountaintop-removal jobs. Obama administration lawyers argued against the narrow reading of the law.

Lawyers for citizens' groups are involved in seeking a legal ruling to narrow the issues on the permit and will begin arguments on May 8. (Read more)

W.Va., Labor Department pause to remember 2nd anniversary of worst coal mine disaster in 40 years

Two years ago today the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years happened in Raleigh County, West Virginia, at the Upper Big Branch underground mine. An explosion fueled by methane and coal dust tore through the mine, killing 29 miners. In the wake of the disaster, Massey Energy's longtime chief Don Blankenship resigned, and Alpha Natural Resources bought the company. Two high-level employees at the mine have been convicted, and Alpha has reached a settlement with the miners' families. The Associated Press reports Alpha will soon permanently seal the mine. Bore holes will be plugged and air shafts capped to prevent any access, and the company hopes to be finished by summer. (Charleston Gazette photo)

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has encouraged all West Virginians to observe a moment of silence today at 3:01 p.m., the time of the explosion, reports Chad Abshire of the Williamson Daily News. "Two years ago, a tragic mining accident forever separated families from their loved ones and shattered a community,” Tomblin said. “The 29 men who lost their lives were more than hard working miners; they were sons, brothers, fathers, friends and fellow West Virginians." U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall and U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller have also commemorated the anniversary of the disaster and called others to remember the 29 miners.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a statement, saying that the disaster was "the single most heartbreaking day" of her tenure, and that the Mine Safety and Health Administration has made changes to prevent similar disasters in the future. "On this sad occasion, I commit to ensuring the full human dignity of every coal miner by pursuing violators with the full force of the law," she said in the statement. "And I vow that those miners and families who suffered so grievously two years ago - and every day since - will never be far from my thoughts." (AP photo: After the disaster)

Several memorial events have been planned across the state. The Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce and the Whitesville Miners Memorial Group will lay a wreath at the Raleigh County Courthouse at 3 p.m., reports Sarah Plummer of The Register-Herald. Several local officials and the local fire department will attend. The chamber is trying to install a permanent memorial at the courthouse.

Uranium mill may be built in rural Colorado

The first new uranium mill in the U.S. in 25 years may be built in Colorado. Stephanie Simon reports for The Wall Street Journal that Energy Fuels Resources Corp. of Canada is looking for investors after Colorado regulators approved a radioactive-materials license for the proposed mill.

The firm is seeking about $140 million to build the Piñon Ridge Mill to be located in Paradox Valley, a remote rural area of southwest Colorado that has struggled economically. "The mill is expected to employ 75 people — and to spur the creation of scores of additional mining, trucking and support jobs in the Paradox Valley. That promise of jobs has many local residents cheering," writes Simon.

Environmentalists are not as happy. After a uranium mining boom went bust, toxic uranium ore was found at a shuttered mine in the area of Paradox Valley; another closed mill in the area has been designated a federal Superfund site. Cleanup of the property was launched in the 1980s but is far from complete. (Read more) The Associated Press reported on an effort in 2008 to open uranium mines in Paradox Valley.

MSHA and Massey settle lawsuit over Ky. mine

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has settled a lawsuit with Massey Energy over a mine in Pikeville, Ky., that court documents say is a mine so dangerous it requires court supervision. Howard Berkes of National Public Radio reports that Massey's Freedom Mine #1 was singled out for an unprecedented federal court injunction owing to a persistent "pattern of violations" of mine safety law, which "constitutes a continuing hazard to the health or safety of miners."

Massey Energy denies "the existence of any pattern of violations," according to Berkes, but agrees that a U.S. District Court has jurisdiction over Freedom and can apply sanctions. "We felt the best course of action was to cooperate with MSHA and jointly develop a plan for our coal miners to safely close the Freedom Energy mine," Shane Harvey, Massey's vice president and general counsel, told Berkes.

Massey announced shortly after MSHA filed suit against the company that the Freedom mine would be closed. The courts determined that MSHA could proceed with the case in an effort to protect the remaining 60 workers who were closing down the mine. The settlement requires that if new safety violations force closure of all or part of the mine the company must continue to pay workers, or find them other jobs within 60 miles, until the mine is considered safe, reports Berkes. (Read more)

Mine disaster coverage focuses on Massey's safety record and its CEO's controversies

Most national news coverage of the explosion that killed at least 25 West Virginia coal miners and left four others missing has shifted to the safety record of the mine and Massey Energy, with some mentions of other controversies involving CEO Don Blankenship, left.

Four years ago, after a series of mine disasters, Congress passed the first sweeping changes to mine safety laws in 30 years, but those reforms weren't enough to protect the miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine near Montcoal in Raleigh County, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports. So what happened? "It tells me one of two things," longtime mine safety crusader Davitt McAteer of Wheeling Jesuit University, who ran the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton years, told Ward. "One, the law isn't being enforced or, two, the law didn't go far enough." McAteer, an academic partner of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, appeared on all three major broadcast networks' evening news programs.

The mine was written up more than 50 times last month for safety violations, and 12 of those citations involved "problems with ventilating the mine and preventing a buildup of deadly methane," Steve Munson, Jerry Markon and Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post write.  Two miners who asked for anonymity for fear of losing their jobs told The New York Times the mine had been evacuated three times in the past two months because of dangerously high methane levels.  In total, the mine has been cited 112 times since the start of the year.

After state and Massey officials delayed revealing names of the dead, upsetting relatives, "Some of these tensions boiled over around 2 a.m. Tuesday when Mr. Blankenship arrived at the mine to announce the death toll to families who were gathered at the site," the Times' Ian Urbina reports. "Escorted by at least a dozen state and other police officers, according to several witnesses, Mr. Blankenship prepared to address the crowd, but people yelled at him for caring more about profits than miners’ lives. After another Massey official informed the crowd of the new death toll, one miner threw a chair. A father and son stormed off screaming that they were quitting mining work. And several people yelled at Mr. Blankenship that he was to blame." (Read more)
"Even aside from its abysmal safety record, Massey, and its leader . . .  are almost cartoonishly villainous in the way they approach everything from the environment to union rights to media scrutiny," Dylan Matthews, a Harvard student and Post researcher, writes. A 2005 memo from Blankenship to his underground mine superintendents has also received renewed media attention. "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal," Blankenship wrote. Overcasts, which carry forced air across passageways, are "critical to proper mine ventilation," Andrew Leonard points out on Salon.com. A second memo sent out a week later said safety was the company's "first responsibility" and any interpretation that the first memo deprioritized safety was incorrect, the Times noted.

In his first public comments Blankenship told MetroNews of Morgantown, "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process. There are violations at every coal mine in America and UBB was a mine that had violations. I think the fact that MSHA, the state and our fire bosses and the best engineers that you can find were all in and around this mine and all believed it to be safe in the circumstances it was in speaks for itself as far as any suspicion that the mine was improperly operated." Blankenship has since appeared on several national television shows. Some coverage has noted his controversial involvement in West Virginia judicial elections and his denial of global warming.

MSHA hasn't gone without potential blame for the disaster. A government audit released last week said the agency is "is not properly tracking the retraining of its veteran inspectors and is facing a mounting backlog of appeals of health and safety violations from mining companies," O'Keefe reports for the Post. Speculation that the disaster could spur new mine safety reforms has run rampant, but lawmakers cautioned Tuesday it was too early say for sure, reports Mannix Porterfield of the Beckley Register-Herald, the local newspaper in Raleigh County.

The coverage includes some useful and illuminating resources. The Times has a multimedia graphic showing the mine map, the surrounding terrain and where bodies have been found. WSAZ-TV in Huntington is live-streaming all news conferences at the mine on its Web site. The Gazette has created a special Web page for ongoing coverage of the disaster, and Ward has extensive coverage on his Coal Tattoo blog. MSHA has also created a Web page for relevant documents about the mine's safety record.

Here's a little rural journalism, in a big-city paper, about the disaster: Author Denise Giardina, writer in residence at West Virginia State University, writes on the Times op-ed page, "we are a national sacrifice area. We mine coal despite the danger to miners, the damage to the environment and the monomaniacal control of an industry that keeps economic diversity from flourishing here. We do it because America says it needs the coal we provide. West Virginians get little thanks in return. Our miners have historically received little protection, and our politicians remain subservient to Big Coal. Meanwhile, West Virginia is either ignored by the rest of the nation or is the butt of jokes about ignorant hillbillies." (Read more)

Chinese mining officials visit Harlan County, Kentucky, to learn about coal-mine safety

A group of Chinese mining officials and government leaders recently completed a tour of Harlan County, Ky., to learn more about coal-mine safety and become better acquainted with the U.S. mining culture and industry. Among the stops on the tour were the Kentucky Coal Academy in Cumberland and the Portal 31 exhibition mine in Lynch, Jennifer McDaniels of the Harlan Daily Enterprise reports. In October we reported on the opening of Portal 31, a former mine entry that is is a recently opened mining museum.

"I am most surprised and most impressed," Chunian Zhong, mining company i-sunnet’s general manager, told McDaniels through an interpreter. "We have learned much today. The United States, more specifically here in Kentucky, is far more advanced than our country in terms of mine safety. It’s a major concern in China because of our high fatality rates in the industry. We hope this is a start of a partnership that can benefit both countries."

The visit was planned after i-sunnet officials heard of Richmond-based Mine Shield LLC's development of the United States' first modular safe-haven chamber for underground mines. The chamber, developed in response to the Mine Safety and Health Administration's new law requiring mines to provide an alternative refuge chamber, is designed to remain underground for up to 10 years. Each chamber contains a compressed-air circulating system, food, water, toilet and medical supplies, McDaniels reports, and also enacts an alert system that transmits signals to the surface, McDaniels reports.

W.Va. strip mines not restored to approximate original contour, as 1977 federal law requires

Despite a federal law, many coal operators in southern West Virginia are not restoring strip mines to their ‘approximate original contour,’ as required by federal law Ken Ward Jr. reports for The Charleston Gazette. Environmental advocates say the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is partially to blame, since it has failed to clarify what AOC really means.

Under the 1977 federal strip-mine law, “mine operators must put rock and dirt back so that the site ‘closely resembles the general surface configuration of the land prior to mining’," Ward writes. But that language of the law has not been clarified much by regulations, unlike many other parts of the law. Recent investigations cited eight areas where mining made land was 24 to 205 feet lower.

The federal mining office has said the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection needs to do a better job tracking mining so it can better enforce the law, but advocates like lawyer Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and Environment, say the problem is more profound. He says Compliance with AOC regulations would minimize the environmental effect of mountaintop removal, but Lovett told Ward few mines in Appalachia abide by them.

More federal studies are being conducted in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, and supporters of mountaintop removal like the National Mining Association and House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall of West Virginia are anticipating the results. "Thirty years, and we are still looking for a definition of AOC," Rahall said reflectively last year. (Read more)

Judge decides to keep Crandall Canyon mine investigations closed to news media

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration can continue to bar the media from its special meetings related to the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah, a federal judge ruled this week.

A number of news outlets — including The Associated Press, CNN, the Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News — filed suit Oct. 1 against Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for access to MSHA's fact-finding meetings, Nate Carlisle of the Tribune reports. The news outlets cited the precedent of access in criminal investigations, but U.S. District Judge Dee Benson disagreed, saying, "The court cannot make the leap that plaintiffs suggest by concluding that because the public has a First Amendment right of access to hear witnesses in a criminal trial, they also have a right of access to private government investigatory interviews." Tribune editor Nancy Conway said the news outlets had not decided if they would appeal.

Since Sept. 17, the MSHA panel — made up of MSHA employees and Utah Labor Commissioner Sherrue Hayashi — has worked to issue a public report about the Aug. 6 and Aug. 16 collapses at Crandall Canyon mine that killed nine people. The panel is interviewing people knowledgeable about the mine and the collapses, and it reviews related documents. The meetings occur at various locations around the state, and many interviewees are under oath. (Read more)