MASSEY CHIEF SAYS REGULATORS WANT PUBLICITY - Manchin's New Standards Not Followed

(09/25/2010)

Federal regulators are now accusing Massey Energy of failing to fix a dozen safety violations at the West Virginia mine where 29 miners died earlier this year in an explosion. Massey chief Don Blankenship responded by saying the citations are being issued to seek publicity. Massey Energy has come close to saying the disaster was an act of God. The violations are among hundreds found during a routine inspection of the Upper Big Branch mine. The inspections are not connected to the criminal and civil investigations of the explosion. The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster is the deadliest at a U.S. coal mine since 1970. The Mine Safety and Health Administration's online database lists 344 citations since the inspection started July 26. This week, MSHA issued 12 orders closing areas of Big Branch where violations hadn't been fixed. Nine days after Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine blew up, Gov. Joe Manchin issued an executive order that tightened West Virginia's requirements for mine operators to control explosive coal dust in underground mines. Manchin's order said that the coal industry needed to use more crushed stone to keep down the dust. Manchin also asked state inspectors to step up efforts aimed at preventing mine explosions. Records say in the five months since Manchin's order, inspectors from the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training haven't issued a single citation for violation of Manchin's "rock-dusting" standards. State inspectors haven't taken samples of underground mine dust.

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