Massey Energy Co. could have prevented the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers last year and the company failed to disclose some hazards in reports it provided to government inspectors, federal safety officials said Wednesday. It resulted in several wrongful-death lawsuits against Massey and led to the resignation of the company's chief executive and the sale of Massey to Alpha Natural Resources Inc. of Abingdon, Va. 
 
 At a briefing Wednesday in Beaver, W.Va., Kevin Stricklin, coal administrator for mine safety and health at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said, "We found there to be two sets of books" kept by Massey. The others were "production reports" detailing coal output and any reasons for production delays, including safety issues, also written by Massey employees. The participants said the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHSA) presented findings that support its earlier, preliminary conclusions, as well as those of an independent team of investigators, who issued their final report last month. — Gas readings taken shortly after the explosion showed too little methane to support Massey Energy's claim that a massive, naturally-occurring and unpredictable inundation of gas caused the disaster. An Alpha spokesman told NPR before last night's private briefing that the company would have no comment on any new information until after a public briefing set for 10 am ET today. Mine Operator Kept Two Sets Of Safety Records 
 
 itoggle caption Jeff Gentner/AP 
 
 Federal mine disaster investigators disclosed a few pieces of new information Tuesday night from their year-long look at the April 2010 deadly Upper Big Branch mine explosion.
– The explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 people was caused by safety concerns that owner Massey Energy was well aware of, but hid from federal regulators, according to a new report from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. “This much we already know. The tragedy at the Upper Big Branch mine was preventable,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a video this morning at a briefing on the findings in West Virginia, according to the Wall Street Journal. Massey actually kept two sets of safety records, the report found—one for federal regulators, and another internal one that detailed all sorts of other problems, some of which are believed to have caused the Upper Big Branch explosion, NPR reports. Other findings include: Massey failed to control the build-up of explosive coal dust, regulators said, and in some places tunnels weren’t even big enough to accommodate the machine that neutralizes such dust There wasn’t enough methane in the mine to support Massey’s claim that an unpredictable, natural surge of gas caused the blast. Faulty water spouts failed to douse the initial spark that started the blast.