Yesterday we learned that the Bush administration has appointed Stanley Suboleski to the position of assistant secretary for fossil energy for the Dept. of Energy. In that position, he would “oversee projects such as developing clean-coal technologies and carbon sequestration, and polices related to fossil fuels.”
Suboleski is a long-time executive for Massey Energy, serving there in some capacity since 1981. His main role has been to help Massey evade or shut down the dozens of investigations launched against it for repeated violations of environmental laws. His appointment could not send a clearer signal: The DOE is committed to coal and doesn’t give a damn about environmental enforcement.
Massey — one of the biggest practitioners of mountaintop-removal mining — is as dirty as dirty energy gets, and there’s no human being in the country that better represents dirty energy than Massey CEO Don Blankenship. Nobody can rival Blankenship for sheer sociopathic disregard for human life, disregard for the law, disregard for the mountains where he grew up, and disregard for democracy. He’ll be pleased with Bush’s appointment.
