As we end a day full of news on the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, I can’t help but think back to something that the guy in the photo above — MSHA coal administrator Kevin Stricklin — said more than three months ago, at one of those media briefings back when everyone was hoping for survivors …
All explosions are preventable. It’s just making sure you have things in place to keep one from occurring.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship offered quite a different view in his appearance today before the National Press Club:
I’m a realist. The politicians will tell you we’re going to do something so this never happens again you won’t hear me say that. Because I believe that the physics of natural law and God trump whatever man tries to do. Whether you get earthquakes underground, whether you get broken floors, whether you get gas inundations, whether you get roof falls, oftentimes they are unavoidable just as other accidents are in society. So, the idea that we can prevent it from happening again is one that I’m cautious not to say that, although I can tell you there is no one more motivated and intending to try harder to avoid it happening again than I am and Massey’s management time is.
Of course, that fits in well with Massey’s full-court press PR campaign, which kicked into high gear today to try to convince the public that there was no way to prevent the deaths of the 29 fathers, brothers, sons and husbands who died at Upper Big Branch on April 5.
But does it fit with the facts of this situation? And does it fit into the idea of even having mine safety and health programs in the first place? I mean … if physics and natural laws and God are going to strike down coal miners every once in a while, what’s the point of spending so much time, energy and money on these issues?
As for this situation, it might have been missed somewhere in the PR blitz, but it’s far from clear that the methane data Massey showed means what the company is telling the media it might.
First of all, the methane readings for the amount of gas being vented from Upper Big Branch’s Bandytown Fan start more than five hours after the explosion, and not — as this unfortunate public broadcasting headline said, prior to the blast. So, the data doesn’t tell us whether this increased methane flow led to the explosion or was a result of the explosion, as MSHA suggested could be the case. Also, remember that the chart showed methane liberation rates from the mine, and not the concentration of methane in the underground workings. Methane is only explosive when it’s between 5 and 15 percent of the atmosphere … and it’s possible that, at some point, this huge influx of methane would have pushed the gas out of the explosive range underground. We don’t know the answers to any of this yet …
In addition, the really big question about this whole theory about a methane outburst from the mine floor is what — if anything — MSHA and Massey did about the problem when it first came to their attention back in 2003 and 2004. MSHA hasn’t produced any documents about this matter or answered questions about it … neither has Massey. Are these records in the MSHA archives someplace? Why doesn’t the agency provide them to the press and the public? What happened to the promises from President Obama and Secretary Solis about an open and transparent investigation?
MSHA tried to fire back in the PR campaign against Massey, with this memo from deputy assistant secretary Greg Wagner, but agency officials leaked it so badly that there are multiple versions circulating with different dates. Instead of putting together something like this — a memo clearly written to be leaked — why doesn’t MSHA simply release the complete records of the ventilation plans at Upper Big Branch and then make its ventilation staffers available to answer questions about those plans?
As for Mr. Blankenship’s statement that sometimes accidents happen, not everyone in the coal industry buys into the world view. And past history — while including incomplete answers about the causes of disasters — does offer plenty of lessons.
Even the Sago Mine Disaster, linked by federal, state and company investigations to lightning, could have been avoided — according to MSHA’s final report and to the detailed account by special investigator Davitt McAteer and his team.
As I wrote back in January, more and more people inside the coal industry are becoming unwilling to accept the idea that injuries and deaths are inevitable in their business — and are realizing that the general public doesn’t accept that either. CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey is one who has been preaching this:
The blows to our industry’s reputation created by high profile mine accidents impact the safety regulatory environment in which we operate. But I also believe that our poor reputation for safety – however undeserved we think it is – impacts our ability to manage other issues of equal importance to us.
Remember the scene from the movie “The Godfather?”
Don Corleone explains why he must say no to the drug dealer who wants the Don’s political protection. He says, “It’s true I have many friends in politics. But they wouldn’t be my friends for long if they knew my business was drugs, because….frankly…drugs is a dirty business.”
If we are perceived as “a dirty business” when it comes to safety, why would our friends in Congress or the agencies work with us on other important issues.This perception even jeopardizes our role as a key provider of energy to the U.S. economy.
This past Sunday, for example, Thomas Sowell, the noted conservative economist at the Hoover Institute, wrote that the U.S. could reduce mine accidents if we had more nuclear generated power and less coal-fired power.
The message should be clear to all of us. Eliminate the problem.
The best way for the industry to close the reputation-reality gap is to eliminate accidents. To be at zero.
All of us need to be there. Only when key stakeholders know that mine accidents are the exception rather than the rule will we truly be able to effectively manage the many public policy issues we face.
My great-grandfather was a member of the industry’s first mine rescue team. I believe in the importance of safety. I recognize that expecting coal to be a zero-accident industry might be seen as tilting at windmills. But I believe that if we commit ourselves to this goal, we can reach zero. It is within our grasp.
Moreover, we owe it to the men and women who go into the mines everyday to produce America’s energy. We owe it to them, and we owe it to their families. We also owe it to the country — because America needs us. We mine America’s energy resources.
Subscribe to the Coal Tattoo
The more I reflect on these remarks by Blankenship, the uglier I feel. A society that had real dignity and self-respect would simply bar him from doing business.
A man who goes about his daily work, the lives of thousands under his care, on the assumption that “sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing we can do about it” — is unfit to be part of our social compact.
But here he is, flanked by his high-paid Charleston office tower enablers, living proof to America of the stereotype that West Virginians are backward, fatalistic, people who tolerate exploitation and oppression.
No wonder they say West Virginia has a bad “business climate.” Look at our leading example!
29 men dead because they went to work.
Where is the outrage?
Sometimes things do just happen, that’s just a fact of life – leadership responsibilities or not. Admitting that doesn’t exclude one from the “social compact”. It was all the rest at his press club meeting that made Blankenship appear to be unfit to run Massey. His company’s share price has dropped by half and the right response is to go after MSHA as far as placing blame on a MSHA forced mine ventilation plan that Massey apparently believes led to the UBB blast (or is at least useful for Massey to focus on). Delving into other issues and making sound bites unrelated to the mine vent plan are sure to rile Massey’s opponents.
Ken,
The methane liberation readings would make sense in light of seals being blown out. Is that what MSHA’s saying? A blast would consume methane but the same blast would probably destroy any seals.
Do you know what sort of seals they were using? Is this a repeat of previous mine disasters with the omega blocks?
Zero fatalities and zero injuries must be the goal in any industry and that goal must be pursued with passion. From my experience Consol certainly has been steadfast in this target for well over 30 years.
But can this goal realistically ever be achieved without eliminating the industry? Can it be achieved in other industries that even have controlled man-made, work environments consisting of spotless factories? Can it be achieved on the nation’s highways? Even if the answer is “probably not” that does not mean that it should not be pursued with passion and extreme efforts on both the regulatory and producer sides.
It is quite unfortunate that eliminating future hazards sometimes must be proceeded by tragedy. If only close calls could be the predecessor to hazard elimination it would be much better. Let’s hope that mining deaths do not occur in vain and passionate men make effective changes that benefit the hard working men and women in the industry. Bashing does nothing to encourage this and only fuels the flames of those that hate.
Zero fatalities? Try this simple logic – “If the mining industry can achieve 1 complete day with out a mining death, then it follows that it can achieve 365 days without a mining death!”
Casey – Consol has had in place for years a “disaster mitigation plan” which speaks to Consol steadfastness. Further, Consol’s Blacksville shaft explosion/disaster was totally preventable to the extent its occurrance was actually criminal. That explosion and other avoidable failures by Consol fall within those 30 years. The Loveridge coal surge pile disaster comes to mind as well. I wouldn’t hold Consol up as a candle considering their track record and the fact of Consol’s Farmington disaster led to the 1969 Mine Act.
Good points, Casey.
I heard it said once (and it stuck with me) that all businesses to one degree or another operate at the legal margins, to keep costs down. That leaves little room for error.
Redundant systems, downtime to enhance safety, etc., all cost money. Coal mining is particularly vulnerable to these economic pressures. Massey got where it is, it’s often said, by painstaking attention to that bottom line. Coal pays the bills, not safety. That’s why Ken’s reporting on fine reduction may be so important.
I apologize if the anger I feel comes out as “bashing.” I hope it’s clear that it is the shameless campaign of denial and distraction that Massey and its costly PR people are engaging in that I find so repellent.
It is exactly the same approach that the tobacco corporations and climate change deniers have taken. What a terrible example for our children.
Casey, Tom …
Casey didn’t specify who — if anyone — he thought was “bashing” … but surely anyone who does a Google news or blogs search for coverage of yesterday’s comments by Mr. Blankenship can see that the Gazette and Coal Tattoo coverage — even in the comments section of this blog — was far more reasoned and thoughtful and less “bashing” than most of what is being said out there about the Massey CEO.
Casey is right that even if the goal of “zero” can’t be reached, it’s still got to be the goal. And my point in my blog post was that is you accept that a goal can’t be reached, then, well, you’re certainly not going to reach it. That stands to reason. If these things “sometimes happen,” then why put so much effort into preventing them … just let “natural law” decide which workers live and die. If you accept the idea that these disasters are an “act of God,” then you have to wonder why God (he or she) hates coal miners so much … the path of this argument just leads down some crazy rabbit hole.
As for Tom’s remark here:
But here he is, flanked by his high-paid Charleston office tower enablers, living proof to America of the stereotype that West Virginians are backward, fatalistic, people who tolerate exploitation and oppression.
Well, perhaps he could have worded it differently, and should have, but he is pointing out a well-documented thing in West Virginia history … the idea of the “middle-man,” or the local elite (lawyers, PR folks, politicians, some mid-level business executives) who are agents of out-of-state coal and land companies that help these companies be able to operate as they wish, outside the control of local people or government regulators. Massey has the best in this regard, and augments the local promoters with lawyers like white collar criminal defense attorney Robert Luskin and with PR firms like Public Strategies … One wonders what the families of the men who died at Upper Big Branch think of all of this.
Ken.
If Massey had nothing to hide, the company would not need a PR campaign. Business as usual, the coal industry works hard to make West Virginians feel good about being exploited.
In academe we have taught that similar to fires resulting from the conditions being met for the Fire Triangle: Ignition, Fuel, and Oxidizer that explosions result from the condidions being met for the Explosion Pentagon: Ignition, Fuel, Oxidizer, Mixing, and Confinement. However, in view of the UBB explosion the requirements for an explosion must be revised, indicating that now an explosion will occur when the following five components are present: 1. Corrupt Politicians, 2. Ineffective Regulations, 3. Greedy Business Persons, 4. Defense Attorneys, and 5. Absence of Whistle Blower Protections. Yep, you should get an explosion every time! QED