Some people really need to stay gone. Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is somewhere just below Dick Cheney on that list, but like Dick Cheney, he doesn't seem ready to sink into the dank pit of obscurity where he belongs. According to Businessweek:
Public records show that Blankenship has incorporated a new venture in Kentucky. Paperwork for McCoy Coal Group Inc. of Belfry, Ky., has been on file since January, though, and it has yet to seek a single mining permit, says Kentucky Energy and Environment spokesman Dick Brown.
You might think it was promising that Blankenship's new company hadn't tried to get any mining permits, but:
Under his $12 million severance package with Massey, however, Blankenship was barred from competing with his former employer for two years.
Alpha spokesman Ted Pile said the company is not aware of Blankenship's current activities but "expects him to honor that agreement."
In other words, Blankenship incorporated his new company long before he could actually into business in a real way. That's not what you do when you're planning to fade away, it's what you do when you can't wait to get back in the game. And for Don Blankenship, that means unsafe, killer coal mines and buying political influence.
Tula Connell reminds us what we can expect from a Don Blankenship mine:
An independent report on the disaster commissioned by former Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) concluded the responsibility for the explosion “lies with the management of Massey Energy…[B]y frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices….Massey exhibited a corporate mentality that placed the drive to produce coal above worker safety.” [...]
Prior to the disaster, MSHA had filed more than 450 safety citations at Upper Big Branch, which wasn’t the only Massey mine with safety problems. MSHA records show that in at least six of the 10 years prior to the explosion, Massey mine’s injury rate has been worse than the national average for similar operations.
Blankenship may have only taken the first small step back into the mining business, but that's too much already. Before his non-compete agreement ends and he thinks about taking another step into mining, he needs to realize the world will be watching for his trademark abuses.