Old Rocks
Diamond Member
- Thread starter
- #21
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday 8 April 2016 07.00 EDT
141
On a wintry night in 2010 a few months before 29 men were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, the coal boss, Don Blankenship – then one of the richest and most powerful men in West Virginia – squared up to Robert Kennedy Jr in a public debate about destructive mining practices and climate change.
The contest had been an epic smackdown and about 1,000 people turned out to see the scion of the liberal Kennedy clan take on the native son and champion of coal.
But Kennedy, despite his impressive command of facts, never really managed to land a punch, or cause a ripple in Blankenship’s impassive demeanor – let alone win over an audience stacked with miners from the coal baron’s Massey EnergyCompany.
“When you criticise what we do as an industry, you are criticising the people that are teaching your Sunday school, that are coaching your little league,” Blankenship told Kennedy. The line got the biggest applause all night.
Six years later, Blankenship and the coal industry he championed are both on the ropes. The former chief executive is headed to prison and some of the biggest coalmining companies in the world are in bankruptcy or possibly headed that way –knocked out of electricity markets by cheap natural gas and the environmental regulations Blankenship so vehemently opposed.
The former chief executive of Massey Energy was sentenced this week to a year in prison for willfully violating mine safety standards – the highest penalty available under the law. Blankenship was not accused of direct responsibility for the accident – the worst in 40 years in the US.
Next week Peabody Energy, the world’s largest publicly traded coal company, will come to the end of a 30-day grace period to repay its crushing debts or fall into bankruptcy.
The company’s share price has fallen by 98% since 2011.
The death of US coal: industry on a steep decline as cheap natural gas rises
Looks like reduction from an E-cup to half a nipple. Coal, as a big industry, is dead.
Friday 8 April 2016 07.00 EDT
141
On a wintry night in 2010 a few months before 29 men were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, the coal boss, Don Blankenship – then one of the richest and most powerful men in West Virginia – squared up to Robert Kennedy Jr in a public debate about destructive mining practices and climate change.
The contest had been an epic smackdown and about 1,000 people turned out to see the scion of the liberal Kennedy clan take on the native son and champion of coal.
But Kennedy, despite his impressive command of facts, never really managed to land a punch, or cause a ripple in Blankenship’s impassive demeanor – let alone win over an audience stacked with miners from the coal baron’s Massey EnergyCompany.
“When you criticise what we do as an industry, you are criticising the people that are teaching your Sunday school, that are coaching your little league,” Blankenship told Kennedy. The line got the biggest applause all night.
Six years later, Blankenship and the coal industry he championed are both on the ropes. The former chief executive is headed to prison and some of the biggest coalmining companies in the world are in bankruptcy or possibly headed that way –knocked out of electricity markets by cheap natural gas and the environmental regulations Blankenship so vehemently opposed.
The former chief executive of Massey Energy was sentenced this week to a year in prison for willfully violating mine safety standards – the highest penalty available under the law. Blankenship was not accused of direct responsibility for the accident – the worst in 40 years in the US.
Next week Peabody Energy, the world’s largest publicly traded coal company, will come to the end of a 30-day grace period to repay its crushing debts or fall into bankruptcy.
The company’s share price has fallen by 98% since 2011.
The death of US coal: industry on a steep decline as cheap natural gas rises
Looks like reduction from an E-cup to half a nipple. Coal, as a big industry, is dead.