Litigation

Calls for Massey?s Blankenship to Resign

By Peter Hardin

Massey Energy Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship is facing calls to resign in the wake of the company’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia.

The CtW Investment Group demanded Blankenship’s resignation in a letter to Massey’s board of directors. CtW judged the mine explosion a “tragic consequence” of Blankenship’s “confrontational approach to regulatory compliance,” according to a Huffington Post article.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli similarly sought Blankenship’s resignation, saying, “This tragedy was a failure both of risk management and effective board oversight. Blankenship must step down and make room for more responsible leadership at Massey.”

Blankenship is best known to Gavel Grab readers for spending  $3 million in 2004 to help elect a state Supreme Court justice. His coal company went on to benefit from two critical votes by the justice to overturn a massive jury award against it.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in last year’s Caperton v. Massey decision, required the justice to disqualify himself  and pointed out the ?serious, objective risk of actual bias? arising from such a large campaign expenditure.

With national attention riveted on the mine tragedy, Blankenship has continued to get scrutiny for his company management and political power-broker style.

• In the News & Observer newspaper, a stinging column was headlined, “Mine exec’s 16 tons of influence;” it discussed Caperton at length.
• A Bloomberg profile of Blankenship ran under this headline: “Massey’s Blankenship Fought Regulators, Town, Maid as Coal CEO.”

You can learn more about Caperton v. Massey, and about efforts taken in West Virginia and elsewhere to shield judges from big special-interest spending, in Gavel Grab. You can also visit Justice at Stake?s resource page about the case.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 13, 2010 (boomark / email).