Report Faults Mine Owner for Explosion That Killed 29 (NY Times)

"In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators has put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had "made life difficult" for miners who tried to address safety and built "a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable." "
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"The 120-page report offered a scathing indictment of Massey practices at the Upper Big Branch mine, pieced together through months of interviews and the analysis of documents, data and correspondence. "
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"As the largest coal producer in Appalachia at the time, Massey used its leverage "to attempt to control West Virginia's political system," and through it, oversight agencies. Inspectors, whose job it was to protect miner safety, were cast as "enemies," the report said, with the company challenging their very legitimacy.

"Politicians were afraid of the company, the report said, because the chief executive at the time, Don Blankenship, "was willing to spend vast amounts of money to influence elections," the report said.

"It also faulted regulators for stopping short of applying the strictest censure of Massey, though it noted that individual regulators, like Mr. Mackowiak, made every effort to stop dangerous practices. Massey's allegations that the ventilation problems were the mining administration's fault were baseless, the report said. "