West Virginia Coal Mine

WV Coal Mines Sued For Allegedly Violating Clean Water Laws

AP | PAM RAMSEY | Posted 05.10.2012

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two Alpha Natural Resources Inc. subsidiaries are being sued by environmental groups who claim selenium discharges at a sur...

Coal Mine Sealed After Deadly Blast

AP | VICKI SMITH | Posted 04.06.2012

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia coal mine where an explosion killed 29 men two years ago Thursday will be permanently sealed with concret...

Official: Coal Mines Warning When Inspectors Show Up

AP | Posted 05.23.2012

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The Mine Safety and Health Administration says coal companies are still illegally warning miners when federal inspectors ar...

Miner Dies At West Virginia Coal Mine

Reuters | Posted 05.12.2012

NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - A coal miner was fatally injured at an Alpha Natural Resources Inc mine in West Virginia over the weekend, the compan...

Former Security Chief Convicted In West Virginia Coal Mine Disaster

AP | LAWRENCE MESSINA | Posted 12.26.2011

BECKLEY, W.Va. — The only person prosecuted so far in the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in decades was convicted Wednesday of lying to investi...

Conyers, Coal, and the Future of West Virginia

Mary Anne Hitt | Posted 10.26.2011

Mary Anne Hitt

My daughter is an 11th-generation West Virginian, and by the time she is ready to raise a family, I worry that our state will have been driven off a cliff by the leaders of today who refused to embrace the clean energy future.

Labor Deal made For Thousands Of Miners

AP | TIM HUBER | Posted 08.13.2011

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The United Mine Workers said Monday it has reached a tentative labor agreement with coal producers that employ thousands of ...

Doomed West Virginia Miners Warned Of Coal Dust

AP | TIM HUBER | Posted 05.25.2011

JULIAN, W.Va. — About the time Michael Elswick was wrapping up work deep inside the Upper Big Branch mine, he phoned a colleague on the surface ...

West Virginia Mine Explosion Investigator: Methane May Be Bubbling Up

AP | TIM HUBER | Posted 05.25.2011

UPDATE: Scroll down for full story: CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A federal official says a handheld meter found deep inside the Upper Big Branch mine det...

Coal Giant: Don't 'Rush To Judgment' Blaming Us For West Virginia Mine Explosion

AP | VICKI SMITH | Posted 05.25.2011

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A 36-foot crack in the Upper Big Branch mine isn't venting methane and didn't contribute to a blast in April that killed 29 ...

Doomed West Virginia Mine Slated To REOPEN Despite Ongoing Investigations

AP | TIM HUBER | Posted 05.25.2011

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Massey Energy plans to resume extracting coal by constructing a new entrance to its Upper Big Branch mine within months, des...

Profiles in Courage

Edward Flattau | Posted 05.25.2011

Edward Flattau

Maybe there is some merit to electing to high office senior citizens whose better days in public service are supposedly behind them.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship's Bad Week Ahead

Swamp Politics | Kim Geiger | Posted 05.25.2011

Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship has a tough week ahead. Blankenship, whose actions at the Massey helm have been under scrutiny after a massive e...

Massey Mine Disaster Investigation: Initial Probe Will Be Conducted Behind Closed Doors

AP | SAM HANANEL | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have decided not to convene a public hearing in the early stages of their investigation into the deadly explosio...

How Much Is A Miner's Life Worth To Massey Coal Company?

Posted 05.25.2011

Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy Company which runs the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 miners were killed earlier this month in an explosion...

Sunday Roundup

Arianna Huffington | Posted 05.25.2011

Arianna Huffington

For companies putting profits over people, paying fines for breaking the law has become part of the cost of doing business. So, in the week following the deadliest mining accident in 40 years, it was business as usual for Massey Energy: the company received 130 "significant and substantial" safety violations -- those that present a direct risk to the health and safety of workers. That's why it was great to hear the president raise the possibility of criminal prosecutions resulting from the West Virginia tragedy. He should do the same for Wall Street. Otherwise Goldman Sachs will end up writing a big check for its investment fraud and quickly return to gaming the system. Only criminal prosecutions will finally bring true accountability to corporate America and restore the moral underpinnings essential for a healthy free enterprise system.

Letter From Paris: An Appalachian Spring

Beth Arnold | Posted 11.17.2011

Beth Arnold

This Spring, as this cloud of volcanic ash flows over the skies of France, I think of the West Virginia miners who died last week and their grieving families. Appalachia is also a personal subject for me.

NPR Finds High Injury Rates At Many Massey Mines

WVPubcast.org | Emily Corio | Posted 05.25.2011

National Public Radio's new investigative team recently looked into safety records on Massey Energy mines and found that ten have injury rates higher ...

West Virginia Governor Orders Immediate Mine Inspections

register-herald.com | Mannix Porterfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Manchin called it a "stand-down" and told reporters Wednesday he expects all mine operators and workers to honor the idea. "This is not a day off," t...

Massey CEO Discusses Benefits For Miners' Families

Charleston Daily Mail | Ry Rivard | Posted 05.25.2011

Massey Energy has established a 20-member team of company executives to attend wakes and funerals for the 29 miners who died in the Upper Big Branch M...

West Virginia Legislator Speaks About Coal Industry

Charleston Daily Mail | Ry Rivard | Posted 05.25.2011

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R.W-Va., says coal's place in America is being broadly questioned following the explosion last week at a Massey Energy mine...

West Virginia Mine Disaster (PHOTOS)

The Charleston Gazette | Posted 05.25.2011

View a slideshow of photographs by Charleston Gazette staff and the Associated Press of images from the aftermath of the explosion at the Upper Big Br...

West Virginia Coal Miners' Bodies Recovered

AP | LAWRENCE MESSINA and TIM HUBER | Posted 05.25.2011

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Joe Manchin on Tuesday asked a former top federal mine safety official to independently investigate an explosion that k...

How Will The Obama Administration Investigate The West Virginia Mine Disaster?

The Charleston Gazette's Coal Tattoo Blog | Ken Ward Jr. | Posted 05.25.2011

Sometime this morning, investigators from state and federal agencies are expected to gather at the Mine Safety and Health Academy outside Beckley to b...

Memorial For The Miners

wvmetronews.com | Posted 05.25.2011

The pews were packed Monday at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Fayette County for a Memorial Service for the 29 coal miners killed last wee...