CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Real estate ventures in Las Vegas, Nevada may be what’s next for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship but first, he said, his goal is to “shake loose the truth” about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster.
“Coal miners are at risk unless tragedies and accidents are used to improve miner safety and there’s a lot of lessons learned in the explosion,” said Don Blankenship. “They need to be used to make miners safer.”
Blankenship talked about his time in a federal prison as a guest on Thursday’s “580-LIVE with Charleston Mayor Danny Jones,” one day after he finished a one year sentence for willfully conspiring to violate mandatory mine safety laws at the Upper Big Branch Mine.
In December 2016, Blankenship was convicted of a federal misdemeanor charge stemming from how the UBB Mine in Raleigh County was run in the months leading up to the April 2010 explosion that claimed the lives of 29 coal miners.
Blankenship started his sentence in May 2016 at Taft Federal Prison in California. During the final months of his sentence, he served his time at a halfway house, RRM Phoenix, in Arizona and on home confinement in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“The misdemeanor charge made no sense at all and the attorneys were very confident it would get overturned on appeal and they were shocked that I was sent to prison prior to the chance to appeal,” Blankenship told Mayor Jones.
His appeal was eventually rejected.
Throughout his trial, Blankenship said he was never interested in a possible plea. “I never would allow the lawyers to have any discussion about the plea,” he said. “I knew, not only that I was innocent, but that I was most prolific innovator of mine safety.
The deck was stacked against him from the beginning, in his view.
“It’s funny. Everybody thinks if you’ve got money that you can defend yourself and you can a lot better than if you don’t,” he said. “But Don Blankenship and the United States of America is not exactly a fair situation.”
Investigators at the state and federal levels along with independent investigators determined the UBB explosion, the worst coal mine disaster since 1970, was caused by a spark at the mine face on Apr. 5, 2010 that was fueled by massive amounts of coal dust and methane.
Flagrant safety violations were a major factor, those investigators said.
Blankenship has denied that. He continues to assert an inundation of natural gas was to blame, made worse because of airflow reductions implemented under directions from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
That was part of the manifesto, titled “An American Political Prisoner,” which he released while in prison.
On Wednesday, Blankenship returned to Twitter to defend himself. MSHA and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), he said, have explaining to do.
“The thing that I regret about UBB is that the lessons learned there have not been put into mine safety enhancement,” Blankenship said.
Beyond that awareness effort, Blankenship said he was “not 100 percent sure” what he would be doing next, before noting the “hot” real estate market in Las Vegas with the Oakland Raiders coming to town.
At some point, Blankenship said he’d like to make a trip to West Virginia. He’ll meet with his probation officer Friday to go over the details of his supervised release.
“I’ve got family back there that I’ve not seen in a while now and lots of friends waiting for me to get back that way, so I’ll be that way as soon as I’m allowed,” he said.
Overall, “I’m doing pretty good,” he reported. “It’s the second day of freedom, so that always feels good to be free.”