Tagged: Mining

The first investigative report about last year's coal mine disaster in West Virginia blames a corporate "culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable, where deviation became the norm" for the deaths of 29 Massey Energy mine workers.

The report was produced by an independent team of investigators appointed by former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and led by Davitt McAteer, a former federal mine safety chief who has investigated other mine disasters in the state.

As we reported here Friday, the release of 1,700 pages of interviews about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster search and rescue effort revealed undue risk to the rescuers.

In Cheyenne Thursday, federal land managers are wrapping up their final public meeting on a proposed plan that is expected to map out the future of oil shale mining on public lands.  The Bureau of Land Management is taking what it calls a “fresh look” at the energy resource in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, as the Obama Administration considers shelving a controversial Bush Administration plan that opened up nearly two million acres of land for potential leasing.  The agency will now begin writing what’s expected to be another exhaustive study and that’s reopening an ages-old debate.

The site of last year's deadly coal mine explosion in West Virginia may be abandoned and sealed-off, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

29 coal miners died at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine a year ago in the nation's worst mine disaster in four decades.

"Massey Energy has indicated it wants to seal the UBB mine," says MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere. "A meeting is set for May 5 to discuss the plan for sealing the mine."

Massey has yet to respond to NPR's request for comment.