Massey Energy chairman and CEO Don Blankenship and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear at a forum on the future of energy at the University of Charleston.

The event is set for January 21 before an invitation-only audience in Geary Auditorium. An additional 2,000 seats will be open to the public for a live remote broadcast in Eddie King Gymnasium. University president Edwin Welch will moderate the discussion.

Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is a prominent environmentalist and opponent of mountaintop removal mining.

Richmond-based Massey Energy is central Appalachia's largest coal producer, and Blankenship is a vocal critic of climate-change legislation.

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.