Don Blankenship's house sits high atop a Kentucky hill overlooking his home county of Mingo and this "Billion Dollar Coalfield" shipping yard at Williamson
By Bob Weaver
Massey Energy has renewed the contract of its president and chief executive officer for only eight months, although Don Blankenship's current contract was for three and a half years.
Blankenship watchers are curious if he is now on a short leash.
Blankenship recently contributed millions of dollars to defeat a Supreme Court Justice, while Massey has cases pending before the body.
Blankenship's earnings from other bonuses and incentives this year, in addition to his base compensation, will be $12.4 million dollars, but there are additional payments from company stocks which could push his earnings near $14 million.
The Mingo County native's lifestyle is well-known to that area, including the building of a multi-million dollar mansion that overlooks two states. (Left, view of house from downtown Williamson)
Massey Coal has been accused of pushing union workers out of their mining operations, using bankruptcy proceedings.
Coal companies have managed to avoid paying state Worker's Compensation charges by using elusive practices like outsourcing.
The company has been accused for what many consider to be some of the "country's biggest environmental disasters," including a massive sludge spill along the Kentucky-West Virginia border.
Blankenship (pictured left) threatened to pull all of Massey's operations out of West Virginia for "mistreatment," promoting the state to make overweight coal trucks legal. The state did.
Blankenship was the highest-paid executive of a publicly traded company with West Virginia state connections in 2003.
| 
