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Massey mines draw scrutiny 442 citations, orders issued for safety violations
Lexington Herald-Leader ^ | April 17, 2010 | Linda J Jonson and Bill Estrip

Posted on 04/17/2010 3:22:23 PM PDT by worst-case scenario

Inspectors have cited hundreds of safety violations at Massey Energy coal mines in Kentucky since an April 5 explosion at one of the company's mines in West Virginia killed 29 employees, federal records show.

The 279 citations and orders in Kentucky, more than 80 of them alleging significant and substantial violations, were among a total of 442 issued to Massey underground mines in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia from April 5 through Thursday.

Of those 442, more than half — 222 — were issued to one Massey property in Kentucky, Freedom Energy Mining Co. in Pike County, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of data from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. "That's off the charts. That is an extremely troubled mine," said Tony Oppegard, a Lexington attorney who formerly worked at MSHA and Kentucky's mine-safety agency.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/04/17/1227159/masseys-kentucky-operations-were.html#ixzz0lOlgYiSv

(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: accidents; massey; mines; safety
If it turns out that the explosion on Apr. 5 was due to a safety violation, these violations are still going on, Blakenship can rot in Hell for eternity.
1 posted on 04/17/2010 3:22:23 PM PDT by worst-case scenario
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To: worst-case scenario

Whatever the truth, the Obama regime will try to destroy Massey for political ends. The mines are overrun by inspectors who take the same risks as the miners.
Before I judged the company I would like to read some details of the violations. Are we talking out of date dated equipment, things that were not recorded properly etc..but you never see any details.


2 posted on 04/17/2010 3:31:29 PM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: worst-case scenario
Interesting that these "violations" were not discovered until after the fact.

They beauty of passing 5-bajillion laws is you can enforce them selectively against people you don't like.

3 posted on 04/17/2010 3:33:55 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (FYBO: Islam is a religion of peace, and Muslims reserve the right to kill anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: worst-case scenario

Hey, anybody in for Government coal companies???

Let’s cntinue the successful Socialist takeovers!


4 posted on 04/17/2010 3:37:36 PM PDT by Noob1999 (LOOSE LIPS, SINK SHIPS)
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To: Noob1999

So do you think the accident on the 5th was part of a conspiracy by the government to take over the coal companies? Is that why they’re pushing “clean coal”?


5 posted on 04/17/2010 3:52:06 PM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: worst-case scenario

Utah has 300 years worth of “clean, low sulfur coal” that the Clinton administration took from Utah control under the obscure Antiquities act. Utah had used the resource as a funding mechanism for state support of its school system in lieu of federal control and funding of its school system.

Should the Obama administration now rule current coal production as unsafe, there will be huge increases in energy bills exclusive of any increases due to the anticipated climate change tax increases (climate bill coming up in Senate April 26). We get 50% of our energy from coal, and could easily continue to use coal as a major energy source as we transition in a more gradual, affordable, infinitely less disruptive way to alternate energy uses.


6 posted on 04/17/2010 4:01:59 PM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan Meet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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To: worst-case scenario

Are we seeing another “Toyota Treatment” here?? Remember how badly Democrats hate coal...


7 posted on 04/17/2010 4:08:36 PM PDT by Bean Counter (My name is Obammymandius, King of kings: look upon my works ye mighty, and despair...)
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To: givemELL

Back here in the East, I don’t think I ever heard about the seizure. What “antiquities” was the coal supposed to be? And what are the Feds doing with it all? Couldn’t the State sue?

How did Utah schools deal with the loss? It must have been very difficult for them.


8 posted on 04/17/2010 4:20:45 PM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: worst-case scenario

Some background links that help with your questions:

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/coal-58233-energy-clinton.html

http://www.livestockweekly.com/papers/96/09/26/26utah.asp

This coal remains not available.

We are deliberately being kept away from energy self-sufficiency. Apparently, the energy goals of the US are intended to service, in a “sustainable” manner, only enough energy for a significantly reduced US population in coming decades. With such an overriding agenda, a financial recovery which we would like to anticipate is not in the cards as MORE energy must be produced and BURNED...more electrons must flow, for there to be a recovery for 308 million people and debt to be reduced. Debt reduction is an oxymoronic concept as in a debt-based capitalistic system (we ran out of capital in the late sixties, and became a net borrower in 1971 which has come to catastrophic levels at present) MORE DEBT must be continually be issued to infinity for the system to keep operating. Icarus never made it to the Sun. Neither will our debt-based system which REQUIRES money to be “borrowed” to be printed. We do not print money...we print debt. There is no system that has printed debt that has ultimately survived.

Coal is deliberately targeted for reduction as an energy source in an acute sense. We get 50% of our energy from coal. We cannot do without it for energy purposes or for financial recovery purposes. A public that cannot function with $4 gas will not function with a doubling of electric bills for personal or business use either.


9 posted on 04/17/2010 4:44:45 PM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan eet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
They beauty of passing 5-bajillion laws is you can enforce them selectively against people you don't like.

I agree with this statement.

We don't even know what happened, nor do we know what these "violations" are.

But Obama has already been out there talking about the company as if they willingly killed these people, and the "violations" could be anything down to a miner was wearing his hardhat backwards (as in not the company's policy).

I think Obama is going to use this to tar and feather the entire coal industry.

10 posted on 04/17/2010 4:54:18 PM PDT by SteamShovel (When hope trumps reality, there is no hope at all.)
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To: givemELL
It ain't just coal. A local family owned rock extraction business has been harassed for the last 12 months and now fined out of business. Will probably be bought by LTM or Knife River...friendly to Obama.
11 posted on 04/17/2010 4:56:18 PM PDT by gundog (Outrage is anger taken by surprise. Nothing these people do surprises me anymore.)
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To: givemELL

I agree with you on the cost issue completely. We are an electrically-driven country at this point. The internet has become so indispensable to business that its unavailability would cause a depression.

Thanks for the links. I’m going to educate myself on what’s happening in Utah.


12 posted on 04/17/2010 5:47:11 PM PDT by worst-case scenario (Striving to reach the light)
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To: worst-case scenario

...............So do you think the accident on the 5th was part of a conspiracy by the government to take over the coal companies? Is that why they’re pushing “clean coal”?............

Nope, absolutely not!

But, I’ll bet your ass that the Zer0 administration will use this accident to bash the company (rightly or wrongly), and to declare this company unfit to mine for coal, as well as all others; as coal mining is:

1. Dangerous:
2. Adds to the horrible Carbon Dioxide level that is going to kill us through bogus Global Warming:
3. Will require that the US beaucracasy spend millions/billions more to “oversee these evil coal operators”, probably in sync with evil Wall Street operatives, ultimately resulting in a government takeover of the energy industry!


13 posted on 04/17/2010 10:40:29 PM PDT by Noob1999 (LOOSE LIPS, SINK SHIPS)
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