Move over Freedom Industries, because Patriot Coal is taking over

[muriel_volestrangler]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry poured into an eastern Kanawha County stream Tuesday in what officials were calling a "significant spill" from a Patriot Coal processing facility.

Emergency officials and environmental inspectors said that roughly six miles of Fields Creek had been blackened and that a smaller amount of the slurry made it into the Kanawha River near Chesapeake.

"There has been a significant environmental impact," said Harold Ward, acting director of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Mining and Reclamation.

The incident occurred at Patriot Coal's Kanawha Eagle operation, Ward said.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201402110032

See also: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/11/3277541/west-virginia-coal-slurry-spill/

Via the Balloon Juice blog. It's like Republicans and dangerous industries have an automated law bill/company name generator to come up with Potemkin names for their pieces of shit.

The inevitable literal flag waving:

[Scuba]

1. Freedom and Patriot, eh? Sounds like Sarah Palin made up their names.

[TheMathieu]

2. Brought to you by:

Mitch McConnell
Rand Paul
Hal Rogers
Ed Whitfield
Orrin hatch
Eric Cantor
Evan Bayh

http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/com_supopp/C00452524/

[Blue Owl]

7. AKA Blacklist USA

"Fuck the environment -- just gimme some money..."

[ChisolmTrailDem]

3. Funny the names companies use in an area where those same names will

have a psychological effect on the locals. In this case, those companies are playing on locals' sense of patriotism, and thereby, loyalty to company and nation. These are flag-waving, gun-toting, coal-mining patriots.

[jsr]

4. Names you love and trust

Creepy assholes.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

5. Very creepy, indeed. nt

[neverforget]

6. They love America so much they shit on it every chance they get

and the bought and paid for politicians have their back.

[TBF]

8. And when they're done doing their "business"

they declare bankruptcy and let everyone else pay for the clean up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. They just got out of bankruptcy protection 2 months ago

having scrapped collective bargaining agreements:

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Patriot Coal Corp said it would emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, after months of wrangling with its unionized workforce and former parent Peabody Energy Corp over cost cuts.

Patriot declared bankruptcy in July 2012, saying it needed to cut $150 million a year in employment costs to return to profit.

"This marks the final step in Patriot's financial restructuring," Chief Executive Bennett Hatfield said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company, which produces coal for both steel and power industries, received court permission earlier this year to scrap collective bargaining agreements with its union and draw up new, cost-saving contracts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/17/patriotcoal-bankruptcy-idUSL3N0JW3BE20131217

[TBF]

12. Doesn't even slow them down anymore

does it?

[neverforget]

13. Private profits but socialized cleanup costs

Funny how that works out for businesses

[malaise]

9. You couldn't make up this shite

Could you?

[Initech]

10. Why do I now get the feeling any company with "freedom" or "patriot" in the name...

Or similar buzzwords is run by backwards, greedy assholes who are completely profit driven and don't give a shit about people?

[justiceischeap]

14. I love how understated these comments are by "officials"

Significant spill
Significant environmental impact
"I don't think there's really anything to it," Gianato said. "It turned out to be much of nothing."

I know the definition of significant but it's just so sugar-coated. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

It kinda reminds of those emergency cards in airplanes. The plane is going down but everyone in the pictures are nice and calm when in reality they'd look like this:



Someone needs to use plain language about the shit going on in West Virginia. And I just figured out a way to hire some of the unemployed... put them to work inspecting these damn mining operations.