Alpha Natural Resources has received approval from federal regulators to expand the Brushy Fork coal slurry impound, one of the biggest coal slurry impoundments in the nation, to a height taller than the Hoover Dam. The impoundment is located near Whitesville, West Virginia, and will increase its holdings of coal waste from 6.5 billion gallons to 8.5 billion gallons.
Read MoreStover was indicted in February on charges that he lied to the FBI about instructing guards at the UBB to warn miners whenever federal inspectors from the Mine Safety and Health Administration made a visit. According to prosecutors, he also ordered the disposal of thousands of pages of documents related to the security at the mine.
Read MoreMassey Energy found guilty of egregious safety violations that led to the deaths of twenty nine miners at the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia.
Read MoreFilmmaker Michael Fountain produced this documentary, Bonecrusher, from the perspective of the men who work these mines in order to fuel America’s thirst for energy.
Read MoreBetween 2003 and 2009, the income of poor Brazilians has grown seven times as much as the income of rich Brazilians. Poverty has fallen from 22 percent of the population to 7 percent.
Read MoreDon Blankenship, “The Dark Lord of Coal Country” and CEO of Massey Energy, a “coal company that he has turned into a national symbol of lethal greed” resigned suddenly in December.
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Of the many things being revealed as a consequence of the mining tragedy in the Appalachians two things stand out. One, there are claims the local media would not report on mining violations, worker conditions and human rights violations related to the coal industry their readers are so dependent upon for a living. Two, there was a concerted effort on the part of the mining industry and Massey Energy to keep alternative employment industries out of the area thereby keeping the local workforce dependent and beholden to the coal mine to feed their families.
Massey Energy, owner of the mining operation that killed at least 27 miners yesterday, pervasively ignores safety for his workers, 500 violations last year, while tripling output. Coal mining kills 3 miners per day to black lung disease. ‘Regulated manslaughter’.
