Profits over People in the West Virginia Coal Mine Disaster

There is corporate malfeasance aplenty at the Upper Big Branch Mine where 25 and possibly 29 coal miners died last week. The mine was cited for 57 violations in March alone, many for ventilation problems allowing the build up of methane which is the presumable cause of the disaster.

Massey Energy has a long history of violations and is also responsible for a couple of the largest ecological disasters in America. In 2007 the EPA sued the company for $2.4 billion for over 4,500 violations of the Clean Water Act. The company escaped with a wrist slap $20 million fine. That's just the cost of doing business.

Their Chairman, Don Blankenship is not surprisingly a huge Republican donor. The company has managed to stay union free. When he arrived to address the miners' families the crowd yelled at him for caring more about profits than miners’ lives.

You can read the details here.

The Supreme Court's recent decision to regard Corporations as people as regards campaign donations should be taken to its logical conclusion. Instead of fines those responsible for such acts should be treated as people and should not be able to hide behind the corporate shield. I'm sure if Mr. Blankenship and others responsible for ignoring, and in many cases refusing to pay the fines for safety violations as the company routinely does, should be charged for second degree murder.

That will cause them to start paying attention soon enough. The cost of violating safety laws will become far more than merely 'the cost of doing business".