When sirens started to wail outside the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia’s southern coal country, everyone knew what was up. An explosion of accumulated methane gas had ripped the mine apart. The warnings had been coming for years – in the previous month alone the mine owners had been cited for 57 safety violations. Twenty-nine coal miners would never see the end of their shift or the light of day again. Big Branch was one of the jewels in the crown of Massey Energy, one of the biggest and nastiest energy conglomerates mining coal in the US. Its CEO is Don Blankenship, a man committed to swash-buckling capitalism with all the political connections needed to derail regulation and shape state and even federal politics to create ‘a favourable business climate’.
Hailing from Madison, West Virginia, Blankenship is a local boy made good. He is that most beloved of all US icons – the rags-to-riches capitalist. At $6 million a year, he is the best-paid executive in the coal industry. He is one of the pioneers of a devastating form of strip-mining called ‘mountain top removal’. This involves blowing the tops off some of the oldest Appalachian mountains in West Virginia, shovelling out the coal and disposing of waste rock (known innocuously in industry talk as ‘valley fill’) into nearby streams and valleys. Not only does it turn beautiful countryside into an industrial wasteland but it endangers local populations downstream with flooding and water contamination. Mountain-top removal has become a major environmental rallying point for the peoples of the Appalachian states and their supporters, who ask something which is becoming a common question – what price energy?
