Posts tagged 'mine'
Coal company pays record settlement
Posted: Dec. 7, 2011 | Tags: mine, west virginia
The owner of the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, where 29 men died in an explosion last year, has agreed to pay $209 million in civil and criminal penalties. This is the largest settlement in a criminal investigation of a mine disaster in U.S. history, which you can read about in the Charleston, W.Va., Gazette. Last year, we reported on the poor safety record of Massey Energy, which Alpha Natural Resources bought out in June.
Report blames Massey practices for mine disaster
Posted: May 19, 2011 | Tags: Massey Energy Co., mine
Today's New York Times reports that an independent investigation blames Massey Energy Co. for causing the deaths of 29 miners at a mine in West Virginia. The 120-page report says Massey, the mine's owner, had a pattern of negligence that led to the worst mining incident in 40 years.
As the Investigative Reporting Workshop reported in our The Coal Truth project last fall, no U.S. coal company had a worse fatality record than Massey, even before the Upper Big Branch disaster.
Another coal disaster and journalism
Posted: April 10, 2010 | Tags: mine, west virginia
My home state of West Virginia has been back in the news this week, and not in a good way. At least 25 coal miners died Monday in what appears to be a horrendous explosion in a Raleigh County mine. Rescue efforts are continuing for four men still missing and the outlook is not good. UPDATE: On Friday night, the bodies of the four missing miners were found.
The first big story of my career was the 1968 disaster at the Consol No. 9 mine in Farmington, W.Va. A devastating explosion and fire claimed the lives of 78 miners ...
