TPMMuckraker Massey Energy: April 2010
Massey Energy
Report: FBI Opens Criminal Probe Of Massey Energy
Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship
The FBI has launched a criminal investigation of the Massey Energy Co. mine where earlier this month an explosion killed 29 West Virginia miners, according to the Associated Press.
Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, the wire service reported that the FBI has interviewed nearly two-dozen of the company's current and former employees in its probe of the April 5 accident.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (9) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: Don Blankenship, FBI, Massey Energy, West Virginia
Massey Energy
Report: Top Bush Flack's PR Firm Doing Damage Control For Massey
Dan Bartlett, former counselor to President George W. Bush, and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship
To fight off damaging publicity in the wake of the explosion earlier this month that killed 29 West Virginia miners, Massey Energy has turned to a firm run by a top communications specialist from the Bush White House.
Austin-based Public Strategies has been advising Massey's board on how to respond to questions about the disaster and the board's oversight of the company, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter. Dan Bartlett, who ran President Bush's PR operation, is Public Strategies' president and CEO. Republican consultant Mark McKinnon, who played a leading role in Bush's presidential campaigns, is another principal.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Bobby Ray Inman, Coal Mining, Dan Bartlett, Don Blankenship, George Bush, Mark McKinnon, Massey Energy, Public Relations, Public Strategies
John Kline
GOPers Now Slam Mine Safety Agency -- But Skipped Recent Mine Safety Hearing
Rep. John Kline (R-MN)
In case you needed a reminder of just how shameless congressional Republicans can be...
The GOP members of the House Education and Labor committee, led by Rep. John Kline, last week put out a press release that slammed the "enforcement failures" of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, suggesting that the agency's failure to increase oversight of the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia had helped lead to the deadly explosion that killed 29 miners earlier this month. The release, which did not mention the mine's owner, Massey Energy, asked: "Why didn't federal officials enforce the law to the fullest extent?"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: George Miller, Glenn Thompson, John Kline, Massey Energy, Mine Safety
Don Blankenship
Judge Who Vacationed With Massey CEO Now Running For Congress
Former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elliott Maynard and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship
These aren't the best of days for Don Blankenship, whose systematic downplaying of safety concerns as the CEO of Massey Energy helped lead to last week's deadly mining disaster, and got him named the "seventh scariest person in America." But by next January, things may be looking up for the hard-charging coal boss: He could have a very close friend in Congress.
Elliot "Spike" Maynard is running in the Republican primary to take on Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.V.), whose district encompasses the heart of West Virginia coal country. Maynard, a former State Supreme Court judge, has said that his campaign "is about protecting the coal industry, including all the jobs associated with it," and has charged that Washington Democrats have "declared war on the coal industry."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (25) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)Topics: Coal Mining, Don Blankenship, Massey Energy, Nick Rahall, Sarah Palin, Spike Maynard
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