OSU President Gordon Gee Owes Environmentalists a BIG Thanks (RE: Massey Board)

[mod mom]

WAS JUST ~ A YEAR AGO TODAY THAT MANYOF US WROTE GEE CONDEMNING HIS ROLE W MASSEY ENERGY:

Shadows On High: Gordon Gee’s Massey Problem Just Became a Nightmare
By Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director - Apr 10th, 2009 at 9:26 am EDT
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Categories: Action Alerts, Environment and Conservation, Media Accountability, News, Featured
“We have never confronted a case as extreme as this before.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Massey and CEO Don L. Blankenship’s behavior
E. Gordon Gee is caught between stock losses and the loss of his moral reputation. And when you’re the head of Ohio’s most prominent institution – your moral image is Ohio’s image.

Recently, students, as well as ProgressOhio members, have called on Gee to resign from the board of Massey Energy where he is a director charged with overseeing safety, public policy and, most galling, environmental issues.

For his services, he receives nearly $200,000 in annual compensation from Massey. He’s been on the board for just under a decade and has managed to stockpile quite a few shares in the company. However, since last June, when Gee’s stock would have been worth in excess of $2.6 million, Massey’s shares have plunged almost 90%. Is this why Gee won’t resign from the Massey Board, despite a company and a chief executive who have:

*denied the existence of global warming, saying, amongst other things, if “CO2 emissions are going to kill polar bears, it’s gonna happen.”
*faced billions of dollars in EPA fines
*a case before the U.S. Supreme Court over buying a justice at a state supreme court.
*cited environmental awards that are created by the industry for the industry.
*threatened to shoot a reporter and assaults a cameraman
*had documented worker deaths, including one in which Gee narrowly missed being deposed.
*a documented history of labor strife and union-busting.
*had a major Jesuit university divest their company’s stock because they found it too unethical.
*fought in court for their ‘right’ to build a coal silo with-in three hundred feet of an elementary school.

With all this, it is easy to lose sight that this company’s business is mountain top removal mining, where whole Appalachian mountaintops are de-capped and tossed into valleys and streams.

-SNIP
http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/brianrothenberg/CqRl

WHICH LEAD TO HIS RESIGNATION:

OSU President Resigns From Massey Under Pressure
Ohio State president steps down from board of Massey under pressure from environmentalists
May 29, 2009

(AP)
In a statement Friday, Richmond, Va.-based Massey said Gee will leave the board on July 1 after nine years. Gee, 65, was re-elected to his post at the company's shareholder's meeting May 19.

Pressure from activist groups had intensified ahead of that meeting. Critics said Gee's presence on the board was a show of support for some practices that have come under fire, such as mountaintop mining.

-snip
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=7708223



HAD HE STAYED, HE WOULD BE CONNECTED TO ONE OF THE WORST MINING DISASTERS:


MONTCOAL, West Virginia (Reuters) - Dangerous gases forced rescue teams to retreat from their search on Thursday for four miners missing in a West Virginia coal mine since a massive explosion killed 25 of their colleagues.

-SNIP

The blast at the Massey Energy mine about 30 miles (48 km) south of the state capital Charleston caused the deadliest U.S. mine disaster since 1984. Eighteen bodies remain in the mine.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/08/world/international-uk-mining-massey-accident.html



IT WOULD BE VERY NICE IF HE DONATED THAT $200,000/YR FOR 9 YEARS TO CHILDREN OF THE VICTIMS!