Massey mine question re: fines/sanctions

Does anybody know the answer to the following questions.

Besides levying fines, did the Federal agency which was in charge of oversight have the power to close the mine or would that have had to be a state government action?

I'm in an argument with a wingnut who is discounting all of Blankenship's abuses and his anti-union stance and blaming the whole thing on government for not saving Massey from itself.

http://www.afscmeblog.org/2010/04/07/non-union-mine-rife-with-safety-violations/

April 7th, 2010

The non-union mine in West Virginia where at least 25 workers died in a horrific explosion Monday, has been cited for what the Washington Post calls a “litany of safety violations.”

Massey Energy Co., the owner of the West Virginia mine, is actively contesting millions of dollars of fines for safety violations, according to Think Progress. It has been cited for over 3,000 violations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), 638 since 2009.



AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, says, “The thoughts and prayers of America’s workers are with the families” of those killed and for the safety of the “courageous” rescue teams. He adds:

However, this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.

Posted in Good and Welfare, Labor Movement, Workers' Rights


This will help: Limbaugh Lies About Big Branch Mine: No, Rush, It Wasn’t Union

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04/16/limbaugh-lies-about-big-branch-mine-no-rush-it-wasnt-union/

was only paid $17m in 2009 down from $19m in 2008.

It doesn't seem to have affected his consumption of McRibs.

But returning to the original question, who if anybody, had the responsibilty/abilty to shut the mine down? Was it state officials, Fed officials, was there no mechanism by which the authorities could have shut them down.

Anybody?

http://www.msha.gov/


As The Post reported Friday, safety violations have caused the evacuation of portions of that coal mine 64 times since the beginning of 2009.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040905117.html

Saturday, April 10, 2010

AS RESCUERS continue to try to find the four remaining miners trapped after the Upper Big Branch coal mine exploded on Monday, we're finding out plenty about Massey Energy chief executive Don L. Blankenship and the operations of that doomed facility. None of it is good. What's been revealed is a distressing effort to render ineffective the mining regulations that were strengthened in 2006 to bring a measure of safety to a very dangerous job.

As The Post reported Friday, safety violations have caused the evacuation of portions of that coal mine 64 times since the beginning of 2009. According to Mine Safety and Health News, in that year, 48 serious violations were recorded. That doesn't compare well with other mines of similar size. For instance, the Deer Creek mine in Utah has had only one serious violation in the past 15 years. Poor ventilation, high accumulation of combustible materials and inadequate protections from roof falls were the most oft-cited violations. Just last month, a test showed that the Upper Big Branch mine's ventilation system was circulating less than half the amount of air needed to keep methane and other combustible materials at safe levels. The massive explosion that claimed 25 lives in the Montcoal, W.Va., mine is believed to have been caused by a build-up of methane gas.

Mr. Blankenship has been able to get around the tougher regulations implemented by the 2006 MINER Act by aggressively challenging safety violation citations. Unresolved challenges were part of the reason the Upper Big Branch mine was removed from the "potential pattern of violation" list in 2007. Had this not happened, the Mine Safety and Health Administration would have had the power to shut down the mine until the problems were fixed.

President Obama has asked Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Joseph A. Main, head of MSHA, for a preliminary report next week on what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. "It's a profession that's not without risks and danger, and the workers and their families know that," Mr. Obama said of the coal industry Friday. "But their government and their employers know that they owe it to these families to do everything possible to ensure their safety when they go to work each day." A good place to start would be to ensure that the regulations on the books are vigorously enforced.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVKGRA6WpEIN5Nz65eBdJxozR5fAD9F00E5O1

(AP) – Apr 9, 2010

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — Records show a safety inspector found that management considered production more important than safety twice at a West Virginia mine under scrutiny since an explosion killed 29 people.

In two evacuation orders in 2009, a federal inspector cited the operators of Upper Big Branch mine for skipping mandatory checks of a piece of heavy equipment.

The inspector's notes say management deemed production more important. The citation says the operator complied with the requirements later that day, Sept. 23, 2009.

The notes are included in 140 pages of documents that federal officials released Friday.

Massey Energy Co., which owns the mine, has defended its record and disputed accusations from miners that coal profits were put ahead of safety.