Overnight Energy: Ex-coal CEO gets one year in prison for mine explosion

BLANKENSHIP SENTENCED: Don Blankenship will spend one year in prison and pay a $250,000 fine for his role in a 2010 coal mine explosion that killed 29 people.

A federal judge sentenced Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, on Wednesday, agreeing with prosecutors who had sought the maximum sentence for him.

U.S. District Judge Irene Berger said Blankenship abused his position as CEO of Massey and helped organize the criminal activity that diminished mine safety standards and contributed to the disaster.

{mosads}Blankenship was convicted in December on one count of conspiracy related to the 2010 explosion. The jury found Blankenship not guilty on counts of securities fraud and making false statements, charges that could have brought up to 30 years in prison.

Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine, the maximum penalties possible for his conviction, saying that punishment was “paltry” compared to the scope of the crime.

Read more here.

MCCAIN VS. MCCARTHY: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants a Senate committee to subpoena the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to appear before the panel later this month.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold a hearing in Phoenix on April 22 to probe the impact of a mine waste spill, caused last year by an EPA team, on the Navajo Nation. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, McCain said, should appear at the hearing to discuss the matter.

“EPA must be present at this hearing,” McCain said at a Wednesday hearing. “I respectfully request the committee issue a subpoena for EPA administrator Gina McCarthy to appear at the field hearing scheduled for April 22, 2016 in Phoenix, Ariz.”

McCarthy testified before the Indian Affairs Committee on the Gold King Mine spill in September, one month after an agency team released 3 million gallons of toxic sludge into Colorado’s Animas River.

The waste eventually weaved through several states and tribal lands. McCain said the Navajo Nation, which was heavily impacted by the spill, deserves answers on how it came about.

Read more here.

OIL LOBBY SAYS ETHANOL SUPPORT IS LOW: A poll commissioned and released by the top oil lobbying group shows limited support for expanding the federal ethanol mandate.

According to the poll, released Wednesday by the American Petroleum Institute, more than three-quarters of voters polled are worried blending more ethanol into the gasoline supply will raise the cost of gasoline.

Similar figures of respondents worry about the impact of high-ethanol fuel on their vehicles’ engines and the cost of food if more corn is diverted to ethanol production.

“We’ll use this poll to remind candidates, members of Congress and the administration that American voters are very concerned about the costs and consequences of this unworkable and unnecessary mandate,” Frank Macchiarola, the group’s downstream group director, said in a statement.

Ethanol producers struck back, noting API’s longstanding opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard, and highlighting other polls’ positive results for the mandate.

“It’s no surprise that API, an organization which has made its top priority to get rid of the RFS, is trotting out a phony faux poll to support its antediluvian narrative about biofuels,” Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen said.

“This push poll, which uses opinionated statements to elicit a negative response to biofuels, is not reflective of reality.”   

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the U.S. Geological Society. Suzette Kimball, the agency’s director, will testify.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: The Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on “keeping water and wastewater infrastructure affordable.” Local water officials will testify.

AROUND THE WEB:

Maryland senators have voted to increase the state’s renewable fuel standard, the Baltimore Sun reports.

The climate change czar in Alberta says the provincial government’s climate change plan is changing the debate over environmental policy in the oil-heavy province, the Canadian Press reports.   

Wired looks at the “dizzying scale” of China’s Qinhuangdao’s coal hub, the largest in the world.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories …

-McCain calls for subpoena of EPA chief over mine waste spill
-Flint, energy bill talks stall in Senate
-Ex-coal CEO sentenced to one year in prison for mine disaster
-Senate strikes deal on energy tax breaks in FAA bill
-California residents face summer blackouts after natural gas leak
–New regs for Thursday: Garage, parrots, crayfish
-Sanders warns of ‘catastrophe’ if NY nuclear plant isn’t closed

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