There’s an awful lot that is crazy about this speech by Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal company in the country, and member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce board of directors. He says “greeniacs” are trying to take over the country. He says that people who disagree with his retrograde views on global warming and energy (climate change doesn’t exist, duh) are “communists” and “atheists.” He compares the editors of a newspaper that has criticized him to Osama bin Laden.
But my favorite part is when Blankenship suggests that somehow third world countries have got themselves in their unfortunate states by trying too hard to conserve energy and live sustainably.
I have spent quite a bit of time in Russia and China and India in the last year or two, and I can tell you, that’s the first stage. You go from having your own car to carpooling to, you know, riding the bus to mass transit. You eventually get to where you’re walking. And your apartments go from being nice apartments and homes with your own bathroom, to sharing bathrooms and kitchens with four families.
Whatever you say, chief. Here are the highlights; they’re an excellent view into the thinking of the far Right. More video is over at the NRDC.
