Meet the owner of Massey Energy [[W WA. Coal mine disaster)

**barnesfoto** · April-06-10, 09:02 PM

Meet Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Company. Blankenship is also on the Board of Directors of the US Chamber of Commerce. In this speech above, he denies climate change, derisively refers to Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and others as "greeniacs", and calls them all crazy. Watch the speech, you'll see. In his mind, "the greeniacs are taking over the world."

Massey Energy Company, Blankenship's highly successful strip-mining and mountaintop removal operation is the parent company of Performance Coal Co, where a tragic explosion occurred on April 5th. As of this writing, 25 miners have died and 4 more are still missing. Twenty-five families are without a loved one. Four more may discover they have lost someone they love too. 29 families in all, forever changed by one single, violent event in a coal mine. One single violent event in a coal mine run by a company so obsessed with profit it runs roughshod over employees' and neighbors' health and safety.

Here's something else about Don Blankenship and Massey Energy Company: Blankenship spent over $1 million dollars along with other US Chamber buddies like Verizon to sponsor last year's Labor Day Tea Party, also known as the "Friends of America Rally." Here's Massey's pitch. Note how he makes it sound like he isn't one of the corporate enemies of America.

The Friends of America Rally featured such notables as Sean Hannity, Ted Nugent, and Hank Williams, Jr., and was graced by Blankenship himself going off on a diatribe that seemed strange at the time, but has come to be commonplace these days. It concerned President Obama, Democrats, and any one who doesn't salute God, coal, and apple pie. Oh, and we're also going to 'steal their jobs,' if Hannity is to be believed.

more: http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/mas...-million-dolla

**Jimaz** · April-06-10, 09:26 PM

Kennedy vs Blankenship Climate Debate

**oladub** · April-06-10, 11:26 PM

Since Mr. Blankenship, is by your accounts, a bad man, what is your solution besides punishing him, or his company, for actual safety violations? Affiliates of DTE Energy account for about 13% of Massey's sales. The light in your room shines because of Massey coal. Should coal even be mined and burned? It is a dirty form of energy. How much extra would you be willing to pay for reforming the coal industry or switching entirely to alternative forms of energy?

**Gannon** · April-07-10, 12:17 AM

I believe the esteemed Mr. Blankenship should be forced to pay for ALL of us.

His fine for his abuses against humanity should be exactly one solar panel and total LED lighting conversion throughout per household.

If he doesn't have enough in his kitty to fund it, then dip into all the banker's overpaid executives. At the last resort, have those rumored rogue computer experts from the NSA transfer the hidden funding for all gray ops and bankrupt the CIA and all associated war industries.

Problem solved. Need for energy reduced by well over thirteen percent, so no need to buy coal from this crook. He gets punished, along with a host of other evil pieces of excrement polluting our planet with their very existence.

Cheers

**gibran** · April-07-10, 01:00 AM

I think that safety inspections ignored or not practiced reveal the true character of those in charge of these organizations....if this is found to be true...how big of fine compensates for the loss of a loved one? and who ultimately pays when the rates are increased to offset the costs....

**oldredfordette** · April-07-10, 06:52 AM

How's that free-markety, no regulation-y thing working out for ya?

I do enjoy the right when they defend this murdering scumbag. Just remember, love fetuses and money and everything and everyone else can go fuck themselves.

**Sstashmoo** · April-07-10, 08:54 AM

Blaming anyone in this is just pure ignorance. Mining is very dangerous work, period. There is always the potential for fall-ins, happening upon a pocket of methane, natural gas etc. Which is odorless incidentally. For those of you who don't know, oil, coal and natural gas generally reside in the same vicinity. Miners typically get paid 3 or 4 times what others do in the same part of the country. The reason is because it is dangerous work. These accidents are terrible, but are the fault of the nature of the work. Some of you always gotta hang someone.

**Detroitej72** · April-07-10, 09:21 AM

This disaster is a classic case why we need the government to regulate and oversee mining operations since you can't trust companies to do the right thing in regards to safety. It's been proven time and time again that if left to the free market, the company will more often than not put profits ahead of safety every time.

Massey Energy has quite a bit of blood on it's hands now, although as long as the CEO continues to appear on Hannity or at a tea bagger rally, cons will continue to blindly defend their safety record.

I have read that Massey has had numerous safety violations in the past. What I think should be investigated is if they corrected the problems, or if they simply hide them and continued on their corrupt and morally questionable way. If the later is true, they should be fined and the CEO should be tried for murder immediately.

**Detroitej72** · April-07-10, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Sstashmoo

Blaming anyone in this is just pure ignorance. Mining is very dangerous work, period.

Yes its dangerous work and miners are well paid, however, companies need to follow safety procedures or face the consequences, plain and simple. It's dangerous to drive a car too, but if you follow the laws and safety rules, you have a better chance of avoiding a tragedy.

**Sstashmoo** · April-07-10, 09:53 AM

How do you safeguard against stripping away the land and exposing explosive odorless gas? Shit happens. Now they may be guilty of running a slack outfit and and not enforcing safety rules, they should be spanked for that, but to somehow tie that to an inadvertent exposure of flammable gases is just nonsense. There is no way to avoid that in absolute terms.

**oladub** · April-07-10, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by oladub

Since Mr. Blankenship, is by your accounts, a bad man, what is your solution besides punishing him, or his company, for actual safety violations? Affiliates of DTE Energy account for about 13% of Massey's sales. The light in your room shines because of Massey coal. Should coal even be mined and burned? It is a dirty form of energy. How much extra would you be willing to pay for reforming the coal industry or switching entirely to alternative forms of energy?

I asked the above questions and Gannon was the only person to at all respond. Gibran. orf, and D72 didn't get past the first sentence. It is very dangerous and highly paid work as Sstashmoo correctly observes. It will never be as safe as working behind a desk. Simply punishing Massey will not end all accidents or pollution. Beyond enforcing existing regulations what are your broader recomendations? Remember that DTE is Massey's #1 customer. If a number of additional safety and pollution policies increased the cost of DTE electricity by 10% or 40% would that be ok? How much extra would you be willing to pay for these reforms or some other alternative form of energy like nukes or wind generation?

**Papasito** · April-07-10, 11:14 AM

How do you safeguard against stripping away the land and exposing explosive odorless gas? Shit happens. Now they may be guilty of running a slack outfit and and not enforcing safety rules, they should be spanked for that

This disaster is a classic case why we need the government to regulate and oversee mining operations since you can't trust companies to do the right thing in regards to safety.

they already do! listening to the news they say this mining comany was fined some $6M for violations. at what point does government step in and deem a mine unsafe? responsibility does not only fall on the company, and the owner, but the inspectors and the government as well. this may have been a freak accident, and the result of natural phenomenon that occurs during mining, but steps must be made to to keep a closer eye on potentially dangerous situations.

I do enjoy the right when they defend this murdering scumbag.

They are?

It is a dirty form of energy.

.

I believe the esteemed Mr. Blankenship should be forced to pay for ALL of us.

How's that free-markety, no regulation-y thing working out for ya?

We keep hearing about 'dirty coal' this and 'polluting oil' that, but I don't see Detroit running on 100% wind power, or from hydro-electric power. I don't see coal and natural gas powered power plants shutting down across America, being replaced with wind farms and hydro-dams and solar farms. Nope, it's just not happening. We are only told about pipe dreams and seeing no action. We are having the piss taxed out of us for using existing energy sources, and are told they are evil and everything associated with them is evil. Mining accidents are a pile-on opportunity for the 'green' movement to question why we are mining in the first place.

if the green movement was serious, they would be building these alternative power sources and shutting down the existing power plants - putting thier money where thier mouth is - it's just not happening.

Bash it all they want, knock existing energy all they wish, until the current energy sources are REPLACED, it's all B.S., empty promises and politics.

**Sstashmoo** · April-07-10, 11:22 AM

Quote: "it's all B.S., empty promises and politics."

It's called a "pipe dream". These folks that think their current energy consumption will be easily or even remotely economically replaced have zero knowledge of what they actually consume, or the limitations of what they propose.

**Papasito** · April-07-10, 11:24 AM

...and they are using it as a means to impose tyranny and excessive taxation on the citizens

**Detroitej72** · April-07-10, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by oladub

Since Mr. Blankenship, is by your accounts, a bad man, what is your solution besides punishing him, or his company, for actual safety violations? Affiliates of DTE Energy account for about 13% of Massey's sales. The light in your room shines because of Massey coal. Should coal even be mined and burned? It is a dirty form of energy. How much extra would you be willing to pay for reforming the coal industry or switching entirely to alternative forms of energy?

Like I stated earlier, at the minimum, fine the company and force them to comply with safety regulations. Do you think that is too much to expect?

Second, what does coal being a dirty form of energy have to do with the situation? Your guilty of trying to deflect the problem by bringing up points which are irrelevant to this tragedy in order to protect the perps.

Now as for the rest of your statement, I have no problem using coal until we build other sources of power. The problem is people get all up in arms whenever you mention nuclear power, so that isn't a realistic option. Wind power is great, and is used quite extensively in Europe, but nobody wants to spend money to upgrade our facilities here, so that seems to be DOA. Besides, why would the power companies want to invest any profits into 21st Century technology when they are making huge profits by keeping the status quo?

**gibran** · April-07-10, 11:26 PM

oladub...didn't get past the fact that it is because of companies like this...people die...yes it is dangerous work...so wouldn't it be prudent that safety regulations match the dangerous conditions and if a company is found to purposely violate these regulations for expediency that they should be held accountable ...at least to the families of those people who make a living in a dangerous venue....maybe we should stop enforcing speeding laws..[[personal choice and all) or manufacturing standards..and become like china [[free market giant)..oh yes we desiring to be like China..because someone decided that profits over people are more important than people that used to create the profits....
America firsters logic: dam if those regualtions increase costs..we might as well start buying from China where we canget it cheaper...besides who cares if there are evenless restrictions there...I got mine...and I guess America will ust have to sit back and enjoy the "lights in our homes"...ummm america first or some of America first?

how does one morally rationalize not enforcing safety standards or did I miss the libertarian talking point...free market and competition justifies lack of regulations?

**gibran** · April-07-10, 11:34 PM

papa if government stepped in wouldn't there be another cry of "too much government?" I think they had in this case ... besides it is coming out that this may not be a freak accident ...but one of neglect [[ i know law suits to follow)...but when a company knows their vent system is function wrong and still sends people into the mines...that is squarely on their shoulders..unless the inspectors knew and turned a blind eye..then is a shared responsibility and they also need to face the families....
I do agree with you on many levels...it is shared...but saftey regualtions infractions if found to be a pattern with a compnay should be the canary in the mine...

this is not about energy [[maybe at a macro level)...this is about twenty-five families...and an accident that could have been possibly avoided with proper safety enforcements...

**oladub** · April-08-10, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by gibran

oladub...didn't get past the fact that it is because of companies like this...people die...yes it is dangerous work...so wouldn't it be prudent that safety regulations match the dangerous conditions and if a company is found to purposely violate these regulations for expediency that they should be held accountable ...at least to the families of those people who make a living in a dangerous venue....maybe we should stop enforcing speeding laws..[[personal choice and all) or manufacturing standards..and become like china [[free market giant)..oh yes we desiring to be like China..because someone decided that profits over people are more important than people that used to create the profits....
America firsters logic: dam if those regualtions increase costs..we might as well start buying from China where we canget it cheaper...besides who cares if there are evenless restrictions there...I got mine...and I guess America will ust have to sit back and enjoy the "lights in our homes"...ummm america first or some of America first?

how does one morally rationalize not enforcing safety standards or did I miss the libertarian talking point...free market and competition justifies lack of regulations?

I started off by saying that fines should be paid if there were violations. That we can agree on. You are imagining that I said otherwise. Nowhere did I suggest reducing safety regulations. Please reread what I wrote. I did skip over the tear jerker stuff though. Between 2005 and 2008, there were an average of 61 coal mining deaths per year. Meanwhile, an average of 89 Americans die on our highways every day. What I was getting at was how much were you all willing to pay to improve the situation? We could add all sorts of new safety and pollution regulations but that might cause the end user price to go up 10 or 40%. That, in turn, would cause more unemployment and poor people losing their lives because they couldn't pay their utility bills. Why aren't you as concerned about them? At some point, more people would be dying of cold than are dying in coal mines. So, I ask again, how much extra should be paying for electricity to reduce coal miner fatalities without freezing even more people to death? How much extra would you be willing to pay for alternative energy and/or more stringent mining regulations?

**Papasito** · April-08-10, 06:53 AM

papa if government stepped in wouldn't there be another cry of "too much government?"

There is so much money behind the "Green" movement now, that if they seriously put money where thier mouth is, they could BUILD the wind farms and solar farms and other power plants. I am sure that if a city could switch thier power source from the old coal-fire power plant to brand new solar/wind farms that can output the same amount of reliable energy built by private investors and "Green" groups, they would switch over without question.

My point is no one is building these alternate power sources on a grand enough scale. The only thing these special interest green groups do is talk talk talk and collect donations & tax dollars, and lobby the Washington machine

...oh yeah, and they tell us about how evil we are for daring to use energy to keep our refrigerators running, lights on in our houses, and drive our cars on the road

**gibran** · April-08-10, 08:51 AM

The tear jerker stuff oladub is why someone stepped up to develop safety standards in the first place...I understand where you said fines will be paid ...but sometimes fines are not enough...and the rhetoric [[same as in health care etc.) we all pay for it ultimately...cost rise, pay rises [[hopefully enough to offset the costs)...we might as well get Quality for what we already pay for..not higher profits for stockholders...

papa is again most closest to the point [[gee if we can get along so well ..lol)...we need a comprehensive NASA like effort to put us in the energy independence fast track...stop screwing around build wind and solar as a transition until we get to the next generation of energy...kinda like our president is trying to do.

**oladub** · April-08-10, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by gibran

The tear jerker stuff oladub is why someone stepped up to develop safety standards in the first place...I understand where you said fines will be paid ...but sometimes fines are not enough...and the rhetoric [[same as in health care etc.) we all pay for it ultimately...cost rise, pay rises [[hopefully enough to offset the costs)...we might as well get Quality for what we already pay for..not higher profits for stockholders...

papa is again most closest to the point [[gee if we can get along so well ..lol)...we need a comprehensive NASA like effort to put us in the energy independence fast track...stop screwing around build wind and solar as a transition until we get to the next generation of energy...kinda like our president is trying to do.

I'm not sure how to read your last paragraph. The President will focus on building nukes using wind and solar as sort of a green cover. Of course, much has to be done to change the image of nuclear energy. Nukes are presently being redefined as 'clean, non-carbon producing energy". If measuring carbon was the only indice, that would be correct. If measuring half-life isotopes lasting 100,000 years with no present storage location, that would not be the case. The Bush administration paved the way with legislation exempting nukes from most liability should they go Chernobyl. One of Senator Obama's top campaign contributors [[$227,000) was Illinois utility Exelon . Besides having such an appreciative corporate client, unions endorse the nuclear strategy because of all the construction jobs associated with building nukes. To create demand for building nuclear power plants, it is necessary to make the use of coal more expensive. President Obama's proposed middle class cap and trade tax should do that. Meanwhile, plentiful North American gas development is being ignored.