Going Down Noisily: The Rise and Fall of a Coal Tycoon
- Ex-Massey chief Blankenship faces one year in jail after blast
- He blames `evil unions,' `hoaxers' and `inept regulators'
Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship listens during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on proposals to invest in mine safety programs, in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 2010.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
To hear Donald L. Blankenship tell it, the U.S. coal industry has been undone by inept regulators, evil unions, the media and “global warming hoaxers.” But for jurors at his criminal trial in Charleston, West Virginia, it’s the king of coal himself who bears responsibility for his fall.
Blankenship, 65, the former chief executive of Massey Energy Co., was found guilty by a federal jury on Thursday of a single misdemeanor charge for orchestrating a conspiracy to violate mine safety rules before the April 2010 deaths of 29 miners.