Feature

National Poll Names Worst "Eco-Grinches" of 2007

In December, we asked website visitors at Earthjustice.org to vote on the top environmental "villains" of 2007. More than 12,000 people responded -- shattering records from all our previous online polls -- and the results were both enlightening and informative.

The results have been tallied, and we've got a winner in our online poll for the top "eco-Grinch" of 2007: Massey Energy chairman Don Blankenship. We'll be awarding him a "virtual" lump of coal to commemorate his victory in our first-ever "Eco-Grinch of the Year" award.

Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, is the leading proponent of mountaintop removal (a coal-mining technique that literally blasts the tops off mountains and destroys forests, stream systems and human communities). Blankenship emerged as the clear winner in this year's poll, garnering 41% of the total vote.

Wolf Killers and Climate Change Obstructionists

Coming in second place with 29% of the vote is Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter, whose desire to personally shoot a wolf makes him the poster child for a movement to reinstate wolf hunting in the northern Rockies if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes gray wolves from endangered species protection.

(Look for more on this issue from Earthjustice in the coming weeks and months)

Third among online voters are U.S. climate change negotiators, who had the thankless job of representing Bush administration policies -- and keeping the world from setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions -- at recent international global warming summits. Collectively, the climate change obstructionists earned slightly more than 12% of the popular vote in our year-end poll.

Fourth place (with 10% of the online vote) went to attempts by Shell Oil to conduct exploratory oil drilling in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea, just offshore from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Politics Over Science, Crowing Over Coal, and a Special "Dishonorable Mention"

No one (except perhaps President Bush himself) symbolized the administration's anti-environmental stance more than our fifth-place vote-getter, Julie MacDonald, who applied politics instead of science in her role as deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks (before she resigned in disgrace, that is).

Although last in the vote count, Sunflower Electric Company and its head honcho, Earl Watkins, is a number-one headline-maker for trying to stop a national trend against coal-fired power generation and proving that, once again, if at first you don't succeed, try an end run around state regulators -- and the public -- to get what you want.

And finally, we're awarding a special "Dishonorable Mention" to George W. Bush, who, as the most anti-environmental president in the history of the U.S., won an ad hoc "write-in" campaign from voters.

So… What's It All Mean?

The poll, while not exactly scientific by any standards (voters were asked to select the top "Eco-Grinch" of 2007 from a list of six nominees chosen by Earthjustice staff members), takes good measure of what's ailing the United States when it comes to the environment, according to Earthjustice president Trip Van Noppen.

"Citizens are connecting the dots between causes and effects of global warming. They know, for instance, that mountaintop removal coal mining does more than destroy communities in Appalachia. When burned to make electricity, that coal is transformed into a greenhouse gas that melts ice in the Arctic, imperiling whales, polar bears and Native Alaskan communities," he said.

Vox Populi: Our Voters Have More to Say...

Many online voters took a few extra minutes and shared their comments about our 2007 "Eco-Grinch" nominees...and a few names that were left off our year-end hit list.