Three months after UBB, Blankenship is still an evil SOB

by: heath_harrison

Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 02:45:29 AM EDT

Blankenship's event comes a week after we learned that Massey's electrician disabled a methane detector alarm in order to speed up production, and a day after Massey foremen pled guilty in the Aracoma fire case.

According to Huffington Post's front page story, the Coalfield Don had "no regrets" over the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 workers at his mine on April 5.

In hindsight, is there nothing Blankenship would have done differently before the worst mine disaster in 40 years? No.

Well, maybe one thing.

"What I could have done is be more like I normally am, and sued MSHA [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] the first time they turned off a scrubber, instead of waiting until they turned off 43," Blankenship said.

There were plenty of howlers, but the prize might go to his insistence that mountaintop removal -- a particularly destructive form of mining which involves blowing the top off mountains, thereby destroying entire ecosystems -- was actually bringing "more wildlife" and "more wetlands" to Appalachia.

C-Span has the VIDEO.

Rain Forest Action Network folks showed up to protest (PHOTOS)

And Liz Judge at Earth Justice live blogged the event. Here are some highlights:

- Blankenship on why this accident happened, even after safety citations: physics of natural law and God trump what man tries to do

- Blankenship: even after deadly explosion: "typically mine safety & health acts are knee-jerk reactions"

- Massey's Blankenship deflects his company's safety and fatality record by throwing out # of ppl killed each year on highways