Coal CEO calls environmentalists crazy

This is too much. Don Blankenship and Massey Energy are the poster
children for mountaintop removal. They not only wreck the planet by
selling the coal they mine to be burned, but wreck Appalachian
communities and landscape in extracting it. It’s a pretty horrible
process and this guy labels us as the crazy ones?

My favorite line in this article is “The greeniacs are taking over the world.”

Coal CEO calls environmentalists crazy

Published:
Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:12 AM EST
JULIA ROBERTS GOAD
Staff Writer

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal
company in the country, blasted politics and the press, comparing
Charleston Gazette Editor James. A. Haught to Osama Bin Laden Thursday
evening when he addressed the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson.

“It is as great a pleasure for me to be criticized by the communists
and the atheists of the Charleston Gazette as to be applauded by my
best friends,” he said. “Because I know they are wrong. People are
cowering away from being criticized by people that are our enemies.
Would we be upset if Osama Bin Laden was critical of us?” he asked.

“Totally wrong. Nonsense. Absolutely crazy.”

Those are the words Blankenship used to describe Al Gore, Nancy
Pelosi and Harry Reid as well as environmental groups. He said he felt
simple terms were the only ones the country could understand, that more
sophisticated language was over the head of the general public.

“When we talk about it in more articulate ways, the American public doesn’t get it,” he said.

Blankenship told the crowd, which overflowed the room, spilling over
to fill the Brass Tree Restaurant, that coal is getting a lot of
undeserved bad press. The coal business, he said, needs to start
standing up for itself in the face of the negative image being
portrayed by politicians, special interests and the press.

Blankenship said the business community should put their business interests first, not environmental interests.

“They can say what they want about climate change,” he said. “But
the only thing melting in this country that matters is our financial
system and our economy.”

“The business community doesn’t want to lose any skin,” he said,
referring to the skinned knees he sustained playing football as a boy.
“Being scratched up is not so bad, but the political elite are so
comfortable that they think their mission in life now is to save the
world.”

Many people would give support to groups who work to disprove global
warming if it was not so politically incorrect, Blankenship said.

“How many times have the people in this room heard, at the US
Chamber of Commerce or at the National Mining Association, ‘I don’t
believe in climate change, but I’m afraid to say that because it is a
political reality.’ The greeniacs are taking over the world.”

Blankenship said politicians misrepresent facts when it comes to the
environment. “Politicians occasionally trip over the truth,” he said,
“but they get up and go on as if nothing happened.” He said the amount
of pollution produced by American coal is negligible compared to the
environmental damage done by other countries.

“Its nonsensical, its idiotic. And yet, we call it two different
sides, partisan, Democrat or Republican,” he said. “If Pelosi thinks
that decreasing CO2 in this country is going to save the polar bears,
she’s crazy. If CO2 emissions are going to kill the polar bears, it’s
going to happen. What we do here [in the US] is not going to it.”

Blankenship said he realizes the environment is a concern, but that it is only part of the picture.

“I talk a lot about the total environment,” he said. “Yes, we need
to breathe clean air and have fresh water in the streams. We need to
have trees and all that, but we need to be able to send out children to
school. That’s a total 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,” he said. “If you are really believe that the world is
going to overheat from the use of carbon, then whatever you do in the
United States to reduce carbon emissions is wrong, because all that it
will do is increase CO2 emissions in China. All the things the
environmentalists told us were important, sulfur and particulates,
everything they have talked about and badgered this industry about are
still being polluted throughout most of the world without any controls.”

Blankenship said the industry needs to be as outspoken as those who oppose the use of carbon fuels.

“Its not only important for the greeniacs and environmentalists to
change their views, but there is also a real need for business people
to change their views. We have to challenge everything, and we need to
get more bold. When business people act like politicians instead of
expressing what the truth is, we will have people making decisions on
what they call political reality.”

Blankenship said energy policies put forth by the government have
not worked in the past, and they are not the answer to today’s energy
crisis. He shared a video clip of then President Jimmy Carter
encouraging measures such as conserving heating fuel, carpooling, using
public transportation and avoiding unnecessary car trips.

“Jimmy Carter understood that there was a risk if we increased our
dependence on foreign oil,” Blankenship said. “But did it not sound
similar to Obama? 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.”

“Massey is working hard to come up with soundbites or what sort of
messages might resonant publicly. Unless we get people to think
positively about coal, we are in trouble not only as an industry, but
also as a country.”

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, if you have that much
energy in the ground, you shouldn’t have thousands of troops in Iraq,
spending $10 billion a month, you shouldn’t by trying to patrol the
world. Let the world fight over the oil. Liquify the coal.”

“Coal has to be important,” Blankenship said. “We have to stand up
for coal and for energy independence. Sooner or later, we are going to
have to start saying something, because if we don’t, the other side is
going to start taking over.”