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=====Massey disputes MSHA findings=====
On January 28, 2011, Massey Energy publicly rejected nearly every part of the federal government's theory on what caused the explosion. Vice President and General Counsel Shane Harvey said Massey doesn't believe that worn shearer bits, broken water sprayers or an excessive buildup of coal dust contributed to the blast. Instead, the company continues to argue there was a sudden inundation of natural gases from a crack in the floor that overwhelmed what it insists were good air flow and other controls that should have contained the blast. Harvey acknowledged the shearing machine that cuts the coal may somehow have ignited the gas, but said the company's own investigators haven't determined how. Massey won't issue its own report on the explosion until after state and federal investigators release theirs.<ref>Vicki Smith, [http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12786831 "Massey Disputes Key MSHA Findings on W.Va. Blast"] ABC News, Jan. 28, 2011.</ref>
===May 2011: Independent study faults Massey===
{{#evp:youtube|z17FaqRSvhk|Davitt McAteer on Massey Report|left|350}}
In May 2011, the first [http://nttc.edu/ubb/ comprehensive state report] on the 2010 explosion faulted [[Massey Energy]] for the disaster, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.” The report, issued by an independent team appointed by the former West Virginia governor, [[Joe Manchin]], and led by the former federal mine safety chief Davitt McAteer, echoed preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards.
The report also used blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010: “The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.” The report goes on to say that a “perfect storm” was brewing inside the mine, combining poor ventilation, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning and [[coal dust]], which, contrary to industry rules, had been allowed to accumulate, “behaving like a line of gunpowder carrying the blast forward in multiple directions.”
The investigators also took issue with the conclusion offered by Massey officials — that the explosion occurred when a giant burst of [[methane]] bubbled from the ground, a natural event that would have been impossible to predict or control. The damage inside the mine was not consistent with that theory, investigators said, as only two workers who died had methane in their lungs. The report went on to say that “If, as Massey investigators maintained, one million cubic feet of methane had been suddenly released, the result would have been a five million cubic foot flame going across the face and throughout the tailgate entries in both directions. Evidence found during the investigation does not suggest a force of this magnitude.”<ref>Sabrina Tavernise, [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20mine.html "Mine Owner’s Negligence Led to Blast, Study Finds"] NY Times, May 19, 2011.</ref>
The report also noted that most of the miners killed had [[black lung]] disease, or coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP). The report stated: "Of the 29 victims, five did not have sufficient lung tissue available to make a determination relating to CWP: two due to massive injury and three due to autolysis. The remaining 24 victims had sufficient tissue for examination. Seventeen of the 24 victims’ autopsies (or 71 percent) had CWP. This compares with the national prevalence rate for CWP among active underground miners in the U.S. of 3.2 percent, and the rate in West Virginia of 7.6 percent."<ref>Ken Ward Jr., [http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/05/20/mcateer-report-ubb-black-lung-findings-alarming/ "McAteer report: UBB black lung findings ‘alarming’"] Coal Tattoo, May 20, 2011.</ref>
Eighteen current and former Massey officials, including Don Blankenship, former chair and CEO, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when subpoenaed by investigators. A nineteenth Massey official, chief of security Hughie Elbert Stover, is charged with three felonies that allege he lied to federal officials, destroyed records <ref>Ken Ward Jr., [http://www.wvgazette.com/News/montcoal/201102280915/ UBB security chief charged with lying, destroying files] West Virginia Gazette, Feb. 28, 2011. </ref> and tried to divert government agents investigating whether Massey officials tried to warn mining operations in advance of impending federal inspections.<ref>Ken Ward Jr., [http://wvgazette.com/News/201105171037 New charges filed against Massey Energy security chief] West Virginia Gazette, May 17, 2011. </ref>
===Injunction Against Massey for Freedom Mine Violations===
