“Massey Energy will not participate in activities of organisations that do not have the absolute best interest of West Virginia in mind,” said Blankenship in a statement. “Until the West Virginia Coal Association is ready to make the necessary changes to move our state out of 50th place in major economic ranking indicators, Massey Energy will not participate.”

Saying action needed to be taken in order to see improvement, Blankenship demanded change in the Coal Association leadership group. Blankenship is a board member of the US Chamber of Commerce, which is not satisfied with West Virginia’s legal environment.

The first time Massey exited the Coal Association was in 2001. The absence, which lasted less than a year, was over the company’s disagreement on a US3c per ton to US14c/t state mine reclamation tax increase.

The association did not oppose a now-passed plan by West Virginia governor Joe Manchin to charge a US56c/t tax to reverse a deficit in the state’s workers’ compensation program. Blankenship, however, was opposed to the plan and became its most prominent challenger, sending communications to governor Manchin and all 134 of the state’s lawmakers.

Blankenship spent more than $US3.5 million of his own funds to oust the sitting democratic Supreme Court Justice Warren DeGraw and has expended some $US650,000 on an advertising campaign he hoped would help squash the governor’s plan to fund a collection of West Virginia’s pension plans by selling $US5.5 billion in bonds.

Additionally, Blankenship has recently filed a series of lawsuits, including one against governor Manchin accusing him of using the recent cancellation of Massey’s Goals Coal silo permit as a revenge tactic for Blankenship’s campaign opposing the pension plan. Massey is also suing the United Mine Workers of America and the West Virginia Consumers for Justice for items relating to the DeGraw political campaign, and Blankenship has personally filed a $US300 million suit against the Charleston Gazette newspaper.