As families of dead miners mark the second anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, there is little consolation in the way of improved safety laws or reforms.
Energy companies continue to rake in massive profits. They use this wealth to leverage elections, write legislation, scale back regulations and escape accountability.
Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine. September 21, 2011.
On Friday, two public interest groups asked the attorney general of Delaware to revoke the charter of Massey Energy, a company they call a criminal enterprise.
They violated the Clean Water Act over 4,500 times in a six year time period and are responsible for the deadliest coal mining accident in over 40 years.
Amy Goodman, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bill Haney, Democracy Now!. May 24, 2011.
"They’ve destroyed the unions, they’ve beaten up on the environment, they’ve violated federal health and safety standards, to [enrich] ... the executives of the company."
Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown. September 12, 2010.
Death ought not be the price of having a job. But corporate deaths are happening every day, and our "leaders" are accepting it. It's a national disgrace.
A coalition of NGOs say Don Blankenship is "as criminally culpable as any mass murderer" for the mine disaster because he had systematically worked to avoid safety regulations.
Wells Fargo and Bank of America have severed ties with Massey Energy, the leading mountaintop removal mining corporation. So what's holding up JPMorgan Chase?
As I write this, Massey Energy is poised to unleash even greater terror upon us by blasting Coal River Mountain to ashes, while our lives hover below in the balance.
