CHARLESTON – Before he reported to federal prison in California, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship penned a letter to thank those who had written on his behalf before his sentencing.
Blankenship was sentenced last month to one year in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County. An explosion at the mine in 2010 killed 29 miners.
His attorneys had filed a motion – and an emergency motion – asking for Blankenship to remain free while his appeal was being considered. But the motion was denied May 12, the day he was ordered to report to a federal prison to begin serving his sentence. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals previously set a May 31 deadline for initial briefs on Blankenship's conviction appeal.
Blankenship shared the letter with The West Virginia Record.
“This is a too tardy thank you note for your having written a character letter on my behalf,” Blankenship wrote in his letter, which was addressed to ‘friends.’ “My hope had been to write individual thank yous, but I have not found the time yet, so this a single letter to all of you.”
He said some of those people had expressed regret that their letters to Judge Irene Berger didn’t help because Blankenship had been sentenced to the maximum for the misdemeanor.
“Let me assure each of you that your letter did help, and every one of them was much appreciated,” he wrote. “Foremost, they helped strengthen me enough to endure an indescribable injustice. Second, the letters told the prosecutors, the press, the judge and anyone who cares to read them the truth about what mattered at Massey – safety, jobs, community support and doing the right thing.
“Your letters put in the record Massey's focus on safety as the letters spoke of beyond the law safety policies, innovations, the Massey safety culture and of record safety achievements.”
He said the letter also shot down other comments that had been made during the trial and to the media.
“Certainly your letters fully refuted both Booth Goodwin's campaign rhetoric that I am like a drug kingpin and Steve Ruby's ‘60 Minutes’ comment that Massey was a criminal enterprise,” he said, referring to the former U.S. Attorney who unsuccessfully ran for governor as well as the man who is being considered to replace Goodwin for the federal post. “You can be confident that no coal company ever focused more on safety, paid more wages or did more for the communities than Massey.”
Blankenship said he wanted to speak at his sentencing hearing, but was not allowed to do so.
“I wanted to do so because we and the press learned a great deal more about the explosion this past year, both in preparation for and during the trial, that has gone ignored up to this point,” he wrote. “We and the press also learned of several government actions taken both before and after the explosion by Mine Safety and Health Administration.”
He said MSHA was believed to have destroyed documents and withheld information about the explosion.
“We and the press learned that Bill Ross, then Massey's ventilation expert (MSHA’s former ventilation specialist), literally begged MSHA not to reduce the airflow on the longwall,” Blankenship wrote. “We all learned that Chris Blanchard fought hard to prevent MSHA from reducing the airflow. …
“As to the explosion, the media likes to claim that the UMWA report and three government investigation reports are independent, and that they make clear that the explosion was a dust explosion. Neither is true. The reports were not independent, and they are not based on science.”
Blankenship said evidence shows the explosion was caused by natural gas, not coal dust or coal bed methane.
“The true scientists (and you can be assured that Massey hired excellent scientists to investigate the UBB explosion) say it in a more complex and complete way,” he wrote. “But as ordinary folks, all we have to understand is that the explosion was not dirty enough, not hot enough and not powerful enough to have been a dust explosion.”
He said that fact is important because it shows the miners who died did not contribute to the explosion, which he says the government claims happened.
“There is no evidence the miners contributed in any way to the explosion,” Blankenship wrote. “In fact, MSHA inspections in the days prior to the explosion confirmed that the mine was well rock dusted, and other evidence verifies that to be correct. The miners were not in the least responsible for the explosion.”
In closing, he said the letters of support meant a lot to him personally.
“And someday it will mean a lot to people who seek to learn the truth about Massey and UBB,” he wrote. “The government cannot change the truth, but with the media's help it has thus far covered it up. All we can do is to continue our efforts to uncover it.”