<\/p>\n
The death toll from Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine explosion last week has reached a total of 29 miners, the worst coal disaster in 40 years<\/a>. When the disaster occurred, Massey was contesting millions of dollars in major safety violations<\/a> levied against the mine. At his Labor Day anti-union rally last year, We also endure a Mine Safety and Health Administration that seeks power over coal miners<\/strong> versus improving their safety and their health. As someone who has Watch it:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don Blankenship—who uses his position on the boards of the National Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Before the Massey mine disaster, there was Crandall Canyon<\/a><\/p>\n Grist: hating on Don Blankenship before hating on Don Blankenship was cool<\/a><\/p>\n What does coal mining have to do with geoengineering?<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMassey CEO Don Blankenship attacked the Mine Safety and Health
\nAdministration (MSHA), claiming it “seeks power over coal miners.” He
\nmocked both “Washington politicians” and local elected officials who
\nattempt to ensure miner safety, calling their efforts “as silly as
\nglobal warming:”<\/p>\n
\noverseen the mining of more coal than anyone else in the history of
\ncentral Appalachia, I know that the safety and health of coal miners is
\nmy most important job. I don’t need Washington politicians to tell me
\nthat, and neither do you. But I also know—I also know
\nWashington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner
\nsafety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than
\nwe do is as silly as global warming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nMining Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to promote his conspiracy theories about global warming<\/a>—said he spent one million dollars to put together the “Friends of America<\/a>”
\nright-wing rally and rock concert in Holden, W.Va. on Sept. 7, 2009,
\nwhich starred Ted Nugent, Hank Williams, Jr., and Fox News host Sean
\nHannity. In 2009, Blankenship also complained that “politicians get emotional<\/a>” about disasters and establish “nonsensical” safety rules.<\/p>\n