Villains
like former coal CEO Don Blankenship make it easier to get riled up over
climate change.
By
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders wants the Justice Department to investigate and potentially prosecute ExxonMobil for corporate fraud.
The Vermont senator is alarmed by reports that the energy giant
spread doubt about climate change despite knowing since 1977 that global warming was both underway
and fueled by its own operations.
Bankrolling a disinformation campaign helped stymie climate action and “may have caused public harm,” Sanders said in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Bankrolling a disinformation campaign helped stymie climate action and “may have caused public harm,” Sanders said in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
A tobacco-style case against the whole oil and gas
industry on racketeering charges may
sound unlikely, but prospects are growing. And all heavily compensated executives who run
fossil-fuel companies should heed the federal trial of a de-throned coal king
in Charleston, West Virginia.
Prosecutors accuse Don Blankenship of conspiring to violate
health and safety laws and to cover up that wrongdoing. The former Massey
Energy CEO was also indicted for lying to shareholders and financial
regulators about his company’s safety practices after an explosion killed
29 men at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in 2010.
While Blankenship’s personal legal woes technically have nothing
to do with the fact that coal pollution is a big source of climate-disrupting emissions, the
former executive calls global warming as a hoax. He supports climate-denial groups and attends their conferences.
The fallen coal baron refuses to apologize for the miners’
deaths or admit that he did anything wrong despite a damning parade of witnesses.
Blankenship also exposed himself as a heartless boss with his
Nixonian penchant for recording his own conversations. And
he abused his low-paid housekeeper so
badly that he lost a West Virginia Supreme Court case over a labor dispute with
her. Bill Taylor, the former
CEO’s lead defense lawyer, admitted to jurors that his client is “rude and
insulting.”
In short, Blankenship is a superb villain.
Perhaps this bad guy will ultimately help the common good.
Global warming is hard to explain,
hindering a widespread sense of urgency and outrage. If more fossil fiends get
the attention and infamy they deserve, it could make their industries appear as
evil as they actually are.
Should he be found guilty, the 65-year-old West Virginian could
die in prison while serving up to three decades behind bars.
Blankenship’s travails symbolize the coal’s tough times. Low
prices are hammering the whole industry. Alpha Natural Resources,
which acquired Massey after the Upper Big Branch accident crushed its stock
price, declared bankruptcy a few months ago. Yet coal still wields influence.
In the middle of Blankenship’s trial, two dozen states teamed up with coal company Murray
Energy to sue the government over the Clean Power Plan. That’s the Obama
administration’s requirement that states cut their carbon pollution by about a
third within 15 years — inevitably speeding up the ongoing wave of
coal-fired power plant closures.
There’s more at stake in that legal skirmish than with one
disgraced mogul’s fate. But convicting Blankenship could send a powerful
message about accountability to all energy bigwigs, including those guys
running ExxonMobil: Don’t jeopardize the health and safety of your workers or
the general public, unless you’re willing to wind up behind bars.
Columnist
Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit
national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies. OtherWords.org.