ProgressOhio

NEW YORK, NY -- In 2008, Massey Energy gave E. Gordon Gee, President of Ohio State University, $219,261 for sitting on the the company's board of directors, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Massey Energy is known for the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, removing hundreds of feet of mountaintop to get at coal seams, contaminating drinking water supplies and devastating communities.

Dr. Gee also owns 28,191 shares of Massey Energy stock, worth $334,627.17 on 4/17/09,

Tell Gordon Gee it's time to put his money where his mouth is and resign from the Board of Massey Energy.

OSU President Gordon Gee is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

While serving as co-chairman of a newly formed partnership of public research universities pushing to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil, develop renewable energy, and to facilitate the move to the new green economy, he is being paid over $200,000 a year for serving on the board of Massey Energy, a coal company with one of the nation's worst environmental records.

Massey Energy's shameful record:

• behind one of the single worst environmental disasters in the region’s history, according to the EPA.
• biggest Dept. of Justice settlement in the coal industry’s history, for safety violations which lead to a deadly mine disaster.
• largest fine in EPA history for violations of the Clean Water Act.

ProgressOhio called on Gordon Gee to sever his ties with Massey.

He is not just a college administrator – he is the public face of our state’s largest university and a newly named leader in the renewable energy and green jobs movement.

Tell Gordon Gee it's time to put his money where his mouth is and resign from the Board of Massey Energy.