Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship Announces Plan for “Legislative Change.”

According to WOWK TV in Charleston Massey CEO Don Blankenship promised to spend

“whatever it takes” to “make the state legislature responsible to the people”

on the taping of this weekend’s “Decision Makers” news program.

According to WOWK:

He makes no secret of the fact that he would like to see more Republicans in office. “I think, once the people see what the legislature is doing, they will want to make some changes on their own”. Blankenship said the natural place to start is in the House of Delegates where all the seats are up for grabs in November.

Blankenship and Massey Energy have been the subject of criticism and protests from community groups in the coalfields, unions and environmentalists nationwide for their poor record on mine safety, their antagonistic stance toward unions, and their use of controversial mountaintop removal coal mining. Most recently they have been criticised for seeking to build a new coal silo near Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia.

Blankenship is calling his legislative change campaign, “And For the Sake of the Kids,” a name likely to raise the ire of people in and around Sundial whose children attending the Marsh Fork school are put at substantial risk both from high levels of coal dust from the existing coal silo operated by Massey, which is only yards from the school’s playground and a massive sludge impoundment holding back a few billion gallons of toxic coal sludge behind an earthen dam directly above the school.

About Matt Wasson

As Appalachian Voices' Director of Programs, Matt has worked on all aspects of the "coal cycle" — from mining, transportation and combustion to the disposal of power plant waste — and is a nationally recognized authority on mountaintop removal coal mining and coal economics. Matt has testified before Congress and appears frequently on expert panels.