Labor Department: Massey ‘dragged its feet’ on getting nitrogen for W.Va. mine rescue

I'm sure everyone is still reading about the Massey mine disaster at Montcoal, WV. There is quite a bit of information on all of the news wires. However, I came across this tidbit on Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo blog that I found especially disturbing:

Labor Department: Massey ‘dragged its feet’ on getting nitrogen for W.Va. mine rescue

From: Coal Tattoo

If you watched or listened to the mine rescue briefing that just ended, you heard MSHA’s Kevin Stricklin talk about plans to pump nitrogen into the Upper Big Branch Mine to “inert” the toxic and explosive gases that are keeping rescue crews from resuming their work.

One reporter asked Stricklin why they didn’t try this nitrogen pumping earlier, like Tuesday morning, after rescue teams were initially ordered out of the mine for their own safety. Kevin — who is a real professional and a good fellow — was pretty diplomatic:

I can’t answer that. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of days and it just hasn’t been made available yet.

Well, I asked the Department of Labor Public Affairs office for an official answer to that question, and this is what I got via email just now from Carl Fillichio:

We asked the company for it 2 days ago. Company dragged their feet. We had to keep asking for it.

read more at Coal Tattoo.