Coal baron Don Blankenship respects money, but safety not so much | Midwest Voices

Coal baron Don Blankenship respects money, but safety not so much | Midwest Voices


Coal baron Don Blankenship respects money, but safety not so much

Don Blankenship

By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Coal baron Don Blankenship is the ultimate free marketeer, a trendy niche in this day of seething resentment against government big and small.

He has clever names for environmentalists (greeniacs) and brainless congressmen (scarecrows).

His outspoken hatred of taxes and regulations won him a seat on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He has no use for unions and he abhors “nuisance” lawsuits, though he’s filed a few. A few years ago, he spent millions to run a judge out of office.

Last year, Blankenship forked over $1 million to help sponsor the huge “Friends of America” rally, which brought 70,000 people to a reclaimed mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia to watch big-time entertainers and listen to rants about environmentalists and government regulators.

“Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety,” Blankenship told a cheering crowd at that rally. “The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.”

He should have given government more credit.

Its regulators have fined Blankenship’s companies repeatedly over the years. They know a few things about safety, and they knew there were problems in Blankenship’s mines.

This week, an explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, W. Va., killed 25 workers. Four more men are missing. It’s the worst mining disaster in 25 years.

The cause so far is unknown. But Kevin Stricklin, an administrator with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, stated the obvious when he told news organizations: “Something went very wrong here.”

Blankenship has invested heavily in defiance over the years.

His companies paid $4.2 million in fines and penalties after two workers died in a fire in a Blankenship mine in 2006. His primary company, Massey Energy, paid a $20 million fine in 2008 for clean water violations found by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2004, Blankenship contributed $3 million to fund a deceptive advertising campaign that unseated a West Virginia state Supreme Court judge. The benefactor of that largess responded by tipping the court balance in a decision that threw out a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy.

Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the “bought” judge should have disqualified himself from the case.

These examples represent just a sliver of the money Blankenship has spent over the years paying fines, fighting unions and contributing to candidates and political groups nationwide that share his disdain for taxes, regulations and environmental concerns.

Better that he would have invested those dollars in safety precautions and worker training at his mines. Twenty-nine men might be safe if he had.

Blankenship is a brazen member of a club that promotes its own interests by tearing down any individual or institution that might stand in its way.

The spin is working. Americans have heard so much about “corrupt” unions, “greedy” trial lawyers, “activist” judges and “job-killing” regulators that a good percentage of us think we’d be better off without any of them.

We wouldn’t. In fact, safety inspectors and regulators need more clout to protect workers in dangerous jobs. Judges need a separation from big money and electoral politics. Unions need more authority to insist on safe conditions for workers.

No one was cheering Don Blankenship’s blustery, free-market principles this week. According to The New York Times, he prepared to address a crowd outside his mangled mine but was shouted down.

People accused him of putting profit ahead of workers’ lives. Someone threw a chair. Police officers escorted the coal executive from the scene.

Blankenship should have heeded the judges, unions and regulators whom he so reviled. Turns out they could have protected him.

Editorial board member Barbara Shelly can be reached at bshelly@kcstar.com or 816-234-4594. She blogs at voices.kansascity.com

Submitted by barbshelly on April 8, 2010 - 1:51pm.
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Blankenship-GOP Collusion Should Be Investigated,
Submitted by Truthfairy on April 9, 2010 - 4:37pm.

Great article.

This tragic event has lifted the veil on GOP corruption and hypocrisy with big free marketeer donors. Blankenship-Bush-GOP repeatedly violated the Constitution by robbing mine workers and their families, and state agencies, of their right to justice.

This must be investigated. What we now know is the tip of the iceberg:

In October 2000, a Massey Energy subsidiary was responsible for the largest man-made environmental disaster east of the Mississippi (until 2008), when a coal slurry impoundment broke and spilled 245 million gallons of toxic sludge in the headwaters of two creeks in Kentucky. MSHA of federal Office of Surface Mining said Massey ignored warning signs of the breakthrough...MASSEY AGREED TO $3.25 MILION IN FINES & DAMAGES. Massey's insurance paid $58.8 million in clean up costs. (industry.BNET.com 4.7.2010).

BUT U.S. Sec of Labor Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. McConnell (R-KY), “put on the brakes” on the MSHA investigation into the spill by placing a McConnell staffer in charge. In 2002 a $5,600 fine was levied to replace the $3.25 mil. That September Massey gave $100,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, chaired by McConnell. [Lexington Herald-Leader, 10/2/06, OpenSecrets]

In 2006 Massey’s Aracoma Coal Co. agreed to “plead guilty to 10 criminal charges, including one felony, and pay $4.5 million in criminal and civil fines” after two workers were burned alive in a fire at the Aracoma Mine. The mine “had 25 violations of mandatory health and safety laws” before the fire on January 19, 2006, but Massey CEO Don Blankenship passed the deaths off as “statistically insignificant.” [Logan Banner, 9/1/06; Charleston Gazette, 12/24/08]

In 2006 Blankenship spent between $2 & $3 million backing 41 GOP mid-term candidates - $50k each according to the WVa Record.

On 10/22/2006, NY Times' Ian Urbina wrote in his article, Wealthy Coal Executive Hopes to Turn Democratic West Virginia Republican, "In a state where candidates who win typically spend less than $20,000, Mr. Blankenship has poured more than $6 million into political initiatives."

In 2007, President Bush appointed a senior Massey executive to DOE!!

Massey Energy was cited for 1300 safety violations since 2005. Fifty of those violations are said to be 'unwarrantable failure", violations involving life and death failures over ventilation and other issues. Don Blankenship said the violations are "just a part of running a mine". (Democracy Now)

For six years, under Bush administration, most of Massey's amassed fines were cancelled or reduced.

Ken Cuccinelli and others in Virginia government - overwhelmingly Republican – are/were deeply in the pocket of Massey Energy and Don Blankenship, far more concerned with doing their bidding than in protecting workers, the environment, etc. It's also worth noting that Virginia's two previous AG's, Jerry Kilgore (2002-2005) and Bob McDonnell (2006-2009), apparently did nothing to rein in out-of-control Massey Energy on worker safety, the environment, or anything else. Neither did Mark Earley (1998-2001) or Jim Gilmore (1994-1997). (Blue Virginia)

One could go on for ever with specific examples. Suffice it to say that this Don Blankenship ran his mines with criminal reckless disregard for the lives of his miners and unlawful reckless disregard for federal and state safety regulations, as well as utter disrespect for the constiutional right to justice and impartiality. Throughout, it appears he was aided and abetted by Republican lawmakers, probably some Democrats too, and his ties to the Bush administration.

Now that this has become public, it would be an additional crime of omission not to conduct an investigation and restore justice to those hurt.
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