Massey to build more mines at rapid rate
April 28th, 2008 by Erica
The Associated Press reported today that Massey Energy plans on opening up a new coal mine at the rate of one every 17 days this year.
Massey is positioning itself to take advantage of soaring demand and prices for Appalachian coal. The expansion is centered on underground coal mines, giving Massey alternatives if a court decision that would make it more difficult and time consuming to get federal permits for surface mines is upheld.
“We have all the permits,” Chief Executive Don Blankenship told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Friday. “We have a line of equipment that’s set up that takes us beyond these currently announced expansion plans.”
Massey has a significant presence in West Virgina. Most recent notable Massey news:
- The company had to pay $20 million civil penalty in a corporate-wide settlement for polluting the streams of West Virginia and Kentucky in a flagrant violations of the Clean Water Act.
- Massey refused to do anything about the fact that one of their mountaintop removal mines was located 400 yards upslope from an elementary school (Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV), and a break in the impoundment dam would allow school officials only three minutes to evacuate the entire student population before the school would be under 15 feet of water.
- Massey CEO Don Blankenship was accused of threatening to shoot an ABC News producer when the reporter tried to interview him in a parking lot.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Mountaintop removal, corruption, energy, environment, mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
