A Carbon County ambulance arrives at the Crandall Canyon coal mine Thursday near Huntington, Utah.
There has to be a new reality for the USA following this mine disaster. I realize people are going to be annoyed for me to say once again this is a human rights abuse, but, it is. No different than China's dangerous mines are human rights issues.
The Crandell Canyon Mine operation is especially egregious because Murray Mining knew exactly how dangerous the mine was. The CEO, Bob Murray (click here) called on so-called experts to reassess the mine and make recommendations to get every coal nugget out of the mountain.
As a result, under this 'can do' administration in DC, the mine operator was allowed to engage in 'retreat mining' knowing full well the procedures used in this mine were extreme and never proven to work. The expert Murray Mining exploited must have been paid handsomely to come up with a strategy to get the coal out of Crandall Canyon.
Associated Press
Mine Owner's Companies Fined Millions (click here)
By JOE MILICIA
08.09.07, 1:59 PM ET
CLEVELAND -
The chairman of the company that co-owns the Utah coal mine where six workers are trapped has campaigned to improve mine safety - but his companies have incurred millions of dollars in fines over the last 18 months.
Robert Murray's Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp. has 19 mines in five states that vary widely in the number of fines, citations and injuries, according to an Associated Press review of federal Mine Safety and Health Administration records.
At Utah's Crandall Canyon mine, where the fate of the miners was unknown after a cave-in Monday, the safety record was remarkably good, said R. Larry Grayson, a professor of mining engineering at Penn State University.
"The injury rate for the last four years has been significantly below the national average," Grayson said.
But a mine in southern Illinois owned by Murray subsidiary American Coal Co. has had a significant number of recent violations.
The Galatia mine, which has about 850 workers and produced 7.2 million tons of coal in 2006, has 869 violations so far this year, leading one mining expert to believe the company is "just going for the production and not going for the safety."
Bruce Dial, owner of Dial Mine Safety, a consulting company near Charlotte, N.C., said the high number of fines, $1.46 million so far in 2007, indicates the mine is not taking the necessary steps to remedy problems.
The mine has accumulated more than $3 million in fines dating back to 1999. Records show Galatia is contesting many of the fines.
On June 4, MSHA inspectors cited and fined the mine $54,000 for violating regulations on the accumulation of combustible materials....
What is more egregious is the fact the mine was having seismic activity while rescue workers insisted on proceeding when all hope should have been resigned to reality. I can't believe Murray Mining proceeded with more invasive work in that mine in the face of already losing six men. The mine operators had to know how very dangerous it was as they had that information before the current mining efforts were even conducted. In my opinion, fines aren't doing anyone any good here and these operators need to be held responsible for manslaughter.
A tragic setback: 3 rescuers killed (click here)
6 others hurt; rescue efforts may be suspended
Paul FoyAssociated PressAug. 17, 2007 12:00 AM
HUNTINGTON, Utah - A disastrous cave-in Thursday night killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others who were trying to tunnel through rubble to reach six trapped miners, authorities said. Mining officials were considering whether to suspend the rescue effort.It was a shocking setback on the 11th day of the effort to find miners who have been confined at least 1,500 feet below ground at the Crandall Canyon Mine. It's unknown if the six are alive or dead.Six of the injured rescuers were taken to Castleview Hospital in Price. One died there, one was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital, one was released and three were being treated, said Jeff Manley, the hospital's chief executive....
In recent months the Bush crony network has been promoting the 'idea' of converting coal to oil. This is turning coal into gold in it's value and is the driving force behind the human rights issues now faced by miners and their families. The more valuable coal is, the more chances USA mining companies will take to extract every nugget.
Coal-to-oil fuel hits the road (click here)
BY SHAWN A. HESSINGERTAMAQUA BUREAU CHIEFshessinger@republicanherald.com
07/21/2007
AUBURN — On the recommendation of his 14 year-old-son, Waste Management & Processors Inc. President John W. Rich Jr. decided to take his company’s plan for an $800 million coal-to-oil plant in Gilberton on the road.
The result was an 1,800-mile trip last week through at least seven states, winding up at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., using a diesel fuel similar to one the plant would produce in an effort to spread the word.“I was talking to him and I said if you want to promote this thing why don’t you just get a truck, put some bumper stickers on it and drive it across the country,” said John Rich III.His father did him one better, having slogans promoting the company’s proposed gasification and Fischer-Tropsch Liquefaction process put on the side of a diesel pickup and setting out with his teenage son to put the idea into action.Rich Jr.’s company hopes to secure a federal loan guarantee for 70 to 80 percent of the construction costs for the facility in order to attract investors for the project.The company claims the new plant would be the first to combine the gasification and Fischer-Tropsch Liquefaction processes to convert waste coal into a zero-sulfur, environmentally-friendly diesel fuel.Though the younger Rich had been accustomed to accompanying his father on family vacations, the promotion trip he had dreamed up turned out to be a bit different.The trip included five days of driving with stops in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and travel through Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky.Days generally began at 8 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. with most of the time spent on the road....
The Bush White House is dedicated to his cronies. If this type of abuse is not stopped now it will surmount to unlawful deaths while the Republican money machine continues to crank out more and more rhetoric of coals virtues. These are ruthless people without conscience and they are determined to have their way no matter how dangerous it is, how extreme the idea and how poorly thought out the schemes are. The American people don't need ruthless business executives playing footsie with ruthless Republicans at the expense of their dignity and their lives. Regulation and sanity need to return to American industry and it has to happen now. See, Murray Mining has so much debt from fines it will go to all extremes to continue to operate when in fact these mines should all be closed and chock it up to lives saved.
USA: Oil Money Gushing into Bush Campaign (click here)
Industry Seeks Breaks on Drilling, Pollutionby H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
July 3rd, 2000
WASHINGTON -- While locked in a string of disputes with the Clinton administration, the oil industry has pumped more than $1.5 million into George W. Bush's campaign. Oil companies will be seeking Bush's help on a range of issues, should he be elected president.
Recent high gasoline prices have brought energy policy into the campaign as Democratic presidential contender and Vice President Al Gore tries to tar Bush, the Republican governor of Texas, as a pawn of Big Oil. Bush, a former oilman from Midland, Texas, says it isn't so.
But across a range of issues -- from drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge to new rules setting the price of oil taken from federal land to whether to pursue a controversial international agreement on climate control -- oil-company executives believe a Bush administration would be more receptive to their objectives...
The Crandell Canyon Mining Tragedy on the heels of the Safo Mine Tragedy have the 'true' experts and mining unions determined to be heard and have their lives protected.
Coal Mining Industry Attracts Attention After Utah Tragedy (click here)
8/23/2007 2:26:33 PM As hope for finding the trapped miners in Utah is all but lost, a nation is forced to examine just how far it will go for energy. Our increasing utilization of coal is seen by the Bush administration as an alternative to dependence on international oil. What do we know about this energy source? It powered the United States through the industrial revolution, transforming our nation into a manufacturing powerhouse. However, as private consumption increases, questions about the availability of and the methods used to extract this natural resource weigh heavily on Americans' minds.
The United States is commonly referred to as “the Saudi Arabia of coal.” Currently, America has more than 200 years of coal reserves at the current burn rate, though it is important to note that the rate of consumption continues to increase. Coal has been used to power industry within America since the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1800's.
It's time the Mining Unions were listened to and safety conditions made to exceed expert recommendations. I like redundancy. Fines aren't enough to get mine owners to put lives first. They need real penalities including trials for the deaths to employees exposed to unproven methods that allow them to gamble on their ability to save miners and protect them in the first place.
Miner: ‘I have to get that paper’ (front page) (click here)
BY MAGGIE TROWE PRICE, Utah—“I hope everyone buys that paper. We need unions,” a miner’s daughter said as she bought a copy of the Militant at an August 19 outdoor vigil and fund-raiser in Huntington for the families of the six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine.
The mood at the gathering, where relatives of the miners addressed several hundred people, was one of anger at the mine owners and the federal mine safety agency.
Over the past two weeks supporters of the Militant have fanned out through the coal-mining communities of Price, Huntington, Orangeville, Helper, Wellington, East Carbon, Carbonville, and Sunnyside to join in the discussions taking place among miners and other working people.
A miner coming off shift at the unionized Consol mine near Emery said, “You’ve got it right there!” when he saw the Militant headline, “Safety is a union question! No miner has to die!”...
The Bush White House and the past majority Republican House and Senate are zealots. They used the excuse that this is the year 2000 and later and we can do anything with technology. They used the excuse that the USA was mired in regulations that were outdated and costing companies profits they should not have to lose. As a result all the 'stops' came off and those, like Murray Mining, willing to push their limits were allowed to do so. This without any proof of any technology being able to sustain safe working conditions for miners. It was all 'by chance' and Murray Mining was conducting experimental mining at Crandall Canyon while the Bush Administration was looking the other way so some Republican could come forward to say, see I told you those Commy Liberals and all their regulations were wrong. Bush's administration was just waiting to pin a metal on the lapel of Murray Mining as the most daringly innovative company in the USA.
So much zealots are they and afraid of the impact these tragedies will cause on the mining industry, Bush is now pushing mountain top mining in hopes America will continue to see the profits to be made in an open pit rather than a closed mining shaft.
New Regulations for Mountaintop Mining Not So New (click here)
Friday, Aug 24, 2007 - 05:24 PM
Updated: 05:55 PM
By Megan Skaggs
A new regulation issued by the Bush Administration clears up a practice that has been used for years by mountaintop coal mining companies.
Mountaintop mining, strip mining and even surface mining as it is known, is the process of mining from the top of a mountain instead of from the inside. During that process, waste such as rock, sediment and soil are removed. For years, coal companies have dumped that waste into hollows and what they call "dry ditches", or streams that are dried up or don't flow all year long.
Bill Caylor, President of the Kentucky Coal Association tells Action News 36, that the new regulation issued Friday just clears up the language in previous rules. The original language prohibited dumping in or near bodies of water or streams, which Caylor said the industry has always considered "flowing streams". With the new regulation, that wording is cleared up, and coal companies are still allowed to dump their waste into so-called "dry streams".
Dave Cooper a member of the Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth said the practice of mountaintop mining is damaging not only the mountains of Kentucky, but also our water here in central Kentucky. He said even dumping the waste in the so-called "dry streams" puts sediment and metals in the runoff. Cooper said that runs into the Kentucky River, a major water source for central Kentucky. He tells Action News 36 that the practice of mountaintop mining should stop before our mountains are gone.
Caylor said the coal industry is concerned about the environment and that they are following the rules and regulations provided for them. However, he tells Action News 36 that not being able to dump the rock and soil waste from mountaintop mining or even conventional mining would greatly impact the coal industry here in Kentucky.
There are good people out there with a conscience for industry, the need for energy, the recognition of people needing to make a living and for the environment. We have to not only find them, but, enforce the fact our government is able to regulate and protect citizens from ruthless people, government and practices.
