MASSEY SHIFTING BIG BRANCH DISASTER TO 'ACT OF GOD'

(07/23/2010)

COMMENT by Bob Weaver BP corporate officials should be taking a page from the West Virginia playbook on how to defend their most destructive oil spill in modern times. It took a little time, but Massey Energy is now shifting blame toward the "Act of God" rationale for the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, saying it was a gigantic outburst of methane into the mine with company officials saying there was little they could do to control it. The Herald's story on April 28 predicted the blame, because virtually all mine disasters have been blamed on God - lightning, earthquakes, rainfall, etc. See MASSEY - Oppression Done Under The Sun, Let The Blame Begin Buffalo Creek, the state's most horrific mining disaster, was officially blamed on God, with multi-millions of dollars for the disaster clean-up to be paid by Pittston Coal reduced to a mere $1 million by then Gov. Arch Moore. The actual victims got a few thousand dollars after years of litigation. Massey released a press statement, saying the disaster was an "Unexpected release of methane gas into the UBB mine... (that) "was intense and overwhelming to the normal safety systems." During a press conference to discuss the matter yesterday, officials said they have new methane data from the Upper Big Branch Mine. They said huge amounts of methane may have flooded into the Raleigh County mine from a crack in the floor, overwhelming the mine's safety systems and eventually igniting the April 5 explosion that killed 29 workers. Late yesterday, federal and state investigator dismissed the Massey Energy assertion that the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster was caused by a freak flood of methane gas that the company could do nothing to control. See Investigators dismiss Massey's view that disaster 'unavoidable'

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