Quote of the Day: Don Blankenship on the Thin Edge of the Wedge
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 11.25.08
Don Blankenship of Massey Energy meets the Press
Don Blankenship, mover of mountains and CEO of Massey Energy, doesn't think much of environmentalists ("The greeniacs are taking over the world") or cutting back on CO2, but then he runs a coal company so what else is he going to say. What is really interesting are his thoughts on what happens when you turn down your thermostat:
Turn down your thermostats? Buy a smaller car? Conserve? I have spent quite a bit of time in Russia and China, and that’s the first stage. You go from having your own car to carpooling to riding the bus to mass transit. You eventually get to where you’re walking. You go from your own apartment and bathroom to sharing kitchens with four families. That’s what socialism and the elimination of capitalism and free enterprise is all about.”
He thinks moutaintop removal and burning coal actually HELPS the environment:
“Most people wouldn’t believe that coal is the most important thing to the environment.”But coal produces electricity, he argued, and that improves the quality of life. “Anywhere you go, low cost electricity, the creation of energy, of jobs, of an economy, ultimately leads to an improvement in the environment. There is no place in the world that has a good environment where people live on two dollars a day with no electricity.”
George Orwell couldn't write better Newspeak. Coal is Dirty
TreeHugger on Mountaintop Removal:
An Alternative to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in West Virginia
Majority of American Public Opposes Mountaintop Removal
Quote of the Day: Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo on Mountaintop Removal
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Friends of Coal Put Out the Word
Bush Admin Expands Mountaintop Coal Mining
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
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Sorry to be a party pooper, but why is this news?
Blankenship should be well known to this audience as a completely arrogrant a$$, who really doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and his company profit margin. He has been roundly criticized in a laundry list of documentary films and books. Start out reading "Big Coal" for a primer, if you're unfamiliar with this idiot.
Funny thing is, despite being a really good advertisement for everything that sucks about the coal industry, they
keep him on the books. I say let him stay there and keep rubbing up the environmentalists the wrong way, it will only hasten the demise of this nasty dirty deadly industry.
"There is no place in the world that has a good environment where people live on two dollars a day with no electricity.”
Yeah... uh, you would have to define "Good Environment" for me on that one. If by "Good Environment" you mean that the land has sustained a large diversity of people, plants, and animals for thousands of generations, then I would say that it is not hard at all to find cultures living on
"There is no place in the world that has a good environment where people live on two dollars a day with no electricity.”
Yeah... uh, you would have to define "Good Environment" for me on that one. If by "Good Environment" you mean that the land has sustained a large diversity of people, plants, and animals for thousands of generations, then I would say that it is not hard at all to find cultures living on
Wow. I hope his investors don't read this. He's obviously far too stupid to run any kind of business.
Seems like the guy says whatever he thinks will best preserve his wallet. DB
"The greeniacs are taking over the world"... wow, I will keep it in mind ;-)
"There is no place in the world that has a good environment where people live on two dollars a day with no electricity.”
I guess Blankenship didn't get the memo: this is how millions of America's poor have to live. Tens of millions of Americans live in 3rd World poverty right here in our own backyard because they've been socially and economically marginalized. And educational level or skills has less to do with it than discrimination, cronyism, and economic cannibalism.
Bruce DePalma had a green solution to fuel and energy poverty for Americans which would have fostered more eeconomic growth, upward mobility and economic independence - but he died under suspicious circumstances within a manner of days before his "N-Machine" was to be mass produced while patents were pending. DePalma's N-Machine would have lifted untold people out of the poverty and debt peonage of dependence on greedy utility companies, oil, natural gas, and coal cartels. In a true free market capitalist society, DePalma's invention would not have been quashed by selfish elites who are nothing but social parasites.
What Blankenship calls capitalism is really feudalism. Feudalism creates obscene wealth, power, and privilege for a few by creating an artificially inflated underclass by ensuring that other industries cannot come into a region, prosper, and create sustainable livelihoods for people. This tactic serves to scare middle class workers by restricting their choice in employment, and depress wages of those fortunate enough to have middle class jobs that come with health and dental benefits and retirement plans.
Where I live in Pennsylvania, low-income Pennsylvanians are forced to pay an average monthly electric bill of $175 a month. After the 2004 passage of Act 201 signed by PA governor Ed Rendell, utility companies can now shut off poor people in the dead of winter for being too poor to afford skyrocketing rates. Other states have followed suit with similar laws and deregulations. As a result, 16 million low-income American households are without gas and/or electric because they've been priced out and there isn't "all this help out there" for the poor that people think there is.
So who is getting all this "cheap electricity" from King Coal?
Every American would benefit from cheap or no cost electricity - such as that derived from hydrogen proton membrane exchange fuel cell technology, solar, and wind - all which are environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, very very few people can afford to go "off-grid" becuase they either don't own their own homes, or restrictive deed covenants, insurance companies, and local zoning ordinances make going off-grid impossible, never mind feasible.
Jacqueline Sarah Homan,
Author: "Classism For Dimwits"
"Eyes of a Monster"
"Nothing You Can Possess"
Many opponents of renewable energy are people who, like Mr. Blankenship, embrace the superstitions of supernaturalism. This is evident from his videos from a few months ago, in which he comments on atheists in a negative manner. In order to understand how this works, you need to realize that for most of us who are not climate scientists, confidence in the reality of global warming and its significance as a problem is not based on our personal analysis of raw data or on the climate models that we have personally created. It is based primarily and perhaps exclusively on our assessment of the credibility of other people's opinions. Those who lack the ability to successfully evaluate the credibility of an information source (sources like preachers, for example) are understandably skeptical of science and may have quite an array of religious delusions. This does not mean that they are stupid. It only means that they lack this particular skill. Such a person might be an easy mark for someone intending duplicity.
I'm confident that Mr. Blankenship could be a fine business manager. Many people with specific skill deficiencies can lead productive and useful lives. He should not be condemmed for his delusions. He should be understood and (to a very minor extent) he should be accomodated.
My cat also may lack the ability to assess the credibility of information sources.Even she is entitled to her opinion, although I would not choose to base national policy on that opinion.