Amid new Big Branch revelations, spotlight also back on Colorado coal mine safety

New revelations this week that Massey Energy kept two sets of books at its Big Branch Mine, failing to report major safety hazards to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), have put the media spotlight back on coal mine safety around the country. Colorado coal mines have racked up millions in health and safety violation fines over the last decade, according to the MSHA.

Colorado coal mine rep inaccurately claims methane flaring illegal

Obviously pleased with last week’s roadless ruling allowing Oxbow Mining to vent more methane at is Elk Creek Mine near Paonia, a company spokesman over the weekend also took the opportunity to skewer environmentalists on the issue of methane capture or flaring.

Feds shut down 6 Kentucky coal mines, issue 16 citations to Colorado mine

Federal regulators shut down operations at six Kentucky coal mines targeted by surprise inspections in the wake of last month’s deadly West Virginia mine explosion. The only Colorado mine targeted – Twentymile’s Foidel Creek Mine in Routt County –…

Foidel Creek coal mine tallies fourth injury in 2010

Another accident last week at Twentymile Coal Company’s Foidel Creek Mine between Hayden and Oak Creek brought the number of accidents so far this year to four, according to the Steamboat Today newspaper.

The mine last month was the…

Colorado’s most productive coal mine is also its most dangerous

The Foidel Creek Mine in Routt County is one of Colorado’s most productive coal mines, churning out more than a quarter of all the coal mined in the state. But it’s also one of the state’s most dangerous mines, accounting for nearly a third of Colorado’s coal-mining injuries in 2009.

For Colorado coal industry watchers, mining safety not a top concern

Colorado’s coal industry, the ninth-most productive in the nation in 2008, is under fire from politicians and environmentalists but not, as is the case this month in West Virginia, for safety reasons.