Massey Energy Co.'s (MEE) lead independent director defended the board's oversight of the coal company, fending off criticism that the board failed to police management's handling of safety issues in the period before a deadly explosion this month.

Retired Adm. Bobby R. Inman wrote in an April 28 letter to a group of public pension funds that the accusations are "patently false." He said that the board works to ensure a "strong process" for identifying "critical risks," and reaffirmed his support for Massey's chief executive.

The letter came as a union-backed investment group stepped up a campaign against three directors who are up for re-election. The CtW Investment Group, an arm of labor federation Change to Win, on Thursday said it has begun making presentations to big institutional investors, urging them to withhold support for the directors at Massey's May 18 shareholder meeting.

"Massey's alarming record of regulatory noncompliance and corporate-governance failures make a clear immediate case for shareholder action to remove these directors," said William Patterson, Executive Director of the CtW Investment Group, in a statement. The group works with union funds that hold less than 1% of Massey shares.

Massey shares have declined more than 20% since reaching a high of $53.05 on April 5, the day an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers in the deadliest coal-mining accident in 40 years. Inman wrote that Massey's value has grown from $758 million since the company went public in 2000 to about $4.2 billion as of last Friday, and that Chief Executive Don Blankenship "has been responsible for much of that growth."

A separate group of public pension funds, which include the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, have also argued that the board failed in its oversight and have said that Massey Chief Executive Don Blankenship's dual position as chairman and top executive have "severely compromised" that oversight.

In the letter to the pension funds, Inman countered that as lead independent director "I play a very active role" and "have consistently represented an outside perspective consistent with the concerns and priorities of our shareholders." He also wrote that "I stand by the independence of our board and the expertise of its members."

The jousting came amid news of another deadly coal mining accident, this time at an underground mine in Kentucky. A roof collapse at the Dotiki Mine in Kentucky, owned by Alliance Resources Partners LP (ARLP), left one worker dead and another unaccounted for, the Mine Safety and Health Administration said on Thursday. Rescue personnel are still trying to locate the second miner, the agency said.

-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com

(Joann S. Lublin of the Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.)
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