Cooking the Books

From the time our forbearers first began burrowing into the ground in pursuit of the earth’s treasures, danger has been their companion. Over time the price in human terms that society is prepared to pay has contracted, hence the protection extended miners by State and Federal Laws. That protection, however, is only as good as those who enforce the laws, those who work in the mines, and those who manage them are willing to make it.

When that will to obey and enforce the law is diminished, we see the kind of horrific disaster that occurred a little over a year ago at the Massey Energy Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. Twenty-nine of thirty-one miners working a thousand feet underground died at 3:27 PM, April 5^th, 2010, in what investigators now say was a preventable explosion caused by a coal dust buildup.

Hundreds of State & Federal investigators looked at the evidence, interviewed the better part of a thousand individuals –save eighteen executives who took the Fifth– and poured through tens of thousands of documents. It was the document bit that exposed the disgusting culture of deceit and intimidation that was Massey’s business model.

The investigators found that Massey maintained two sets of books; one –a no problems version– for the inspectors when they showed up and another with the real conditions in the mine. All this was against the law of course, a felony in fact, perhaps the motivation for most of the top guys taking the Fifth. Even with these devious practices, in the year before the blast the mine received more orders to shut down unsafe areas than any other coal mine in the United States, so the authorities knew.

There’s lots of blame to go around. What about the workers? Decent paychecks are hard to come by in Appalachia. The culture at Massey seems to have discouraged anybody blowing the whistle. Fear, raw fear that they would lose their jobs kept the workers in line. Two low-level supervisors have been indicted for lying to the Feds after the disaster. Good soldiers taking the hit, still trying to hide the truth.

On top of this dysfunctional organization stood Don Blankenship, CEO. Known for pouring millions into political races, Blankenship comes across in pre-disaster YouTube videos as a garden variety schoolyard bully, blustering and smirking. Of course, as the tragedy unfolded, to the best of his ability Blankenship became Mr. Compassionate Father Figure, as he crafted an explanation for the explosion as phony the proverbial three-dollar bill.

Within eight months Blankenship had sold the company and walked with a huge paycheck by Wall Street standards let alone Appalachia. He’s likely to face Federal and State charges, not to mention civil suits launched by the families of the victims. While the new owners of the company are known to be more responsible, the scars left from the Blankenship era will remain. Justice -if it comes- may help, but it will not heal the evil that was done at Massey.