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Senate Set to Investigate Utah Coal Mine Disaster |
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A U.S. Senate committee will hold the first of what is likely to be several hearings and investigations into the Utah coal mine disaster where six miners are presumed dead and three rescuers were killed trying to reach the six.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services has asked Crandall Canyon Mine co-owner Robert Murray, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Richard Stickler and Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts to testify at a Sept. 5 hearing.
The committee wants to look into:
- The safety conditions at the mine before the Aug. 6 collapse that trapped and presumably killed the six miners;
- MSHA’s approval of a controversial retreat mining plan that most safety experts say adds danger to an already dangerous operation; and
- How the rescue operation, where the three were killed and six others injured, was conducted.
The underground attempt to reach the six has been halted and five holes drilled from above have shown no signs of life. A sixth drill hole is under way. Murray has said if there are no signs of life from this attempt, recovery operations likely will cease. Earlier this week, Murray said rescue operations would cease, but mining in other parts of the mine would continue. The outrage from families and others has forced Murray to back down and he now says the mine will be closed.
The miners’ families and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R) say they want attempts to continue until the bodies are recovered. They have lashed out at Murray’s actions and Huntsman says:
the way the families have been treated is unconscionable.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that will likely hold its own hearings, wants the U.S. Department of Labor, of which MSHA is a part, to provide a number of documents relating to the Crandall Canyon Mine. Says Kennedy:
The loss of life at the mine, and the devastating emotional toll on families of the victims, underscore the urgent need for a thorough examination of our federal system of mine safety….I am particularly troubled by reports that roof failures, similar in kind to the Aug. 6 collapse, previously occurred in sections of the mine where retreat mining was being conducted, and that this roof failure may not have been reported to MSHA regulators as required by law. Such reports raise questions about the integrity of the mine operator’s reporting and the rigor of MSHA inspections.
In a related development, Roberts has called for an independent, bipartisan panel of mine safety experts to investigate the Crandall Canyon disaster. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Roberts says:
The public needs a reliable way to obtain meaningful information about this horrific tragedy; both the initial trapping of the six miners and the subsequent rescue efforts, which resulted in three deaths last week. I do not believe the American public and our nation’s coal miners will be well-served by another instance of MSHA investigating itself in this disaster.
3 Comments
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Sometimes, I wish I lived in France. A couple years ago, the government tried to take away a holiday. The French unions were furious. There were strikes all over the country. Transportation came to a hault. Now there is worker power…and over a holiday!
Here in the USA, the Bush gang is killing our brothers and sisters by putting MSHA and OSHA in the hands of the worst offenders among the regulated. Our unions scarcely wimper. They don’t even try to make waves. They just send out emails preaching to the choir. What a joke.
Try to put a Union miner down a dangerous hole and I’ll show you a furious Union leader. I pity the unsafe conditions of the non-union miners, but it is a product of their own doing…or undoing. United you bargain; divided you beg.
Our Unions are as strong, or weak, as the members that they contain! Hopefully, Labor-friendly officials, like Kennedy, will have some success at cracking some MSHA heads. Imagine how hard it would be to gain any sort of justice without such Labor-friendly help.
I oppose taxation without representation just as fiercely as providing representation without taxation. As a dues paying Union member, I’m tired of supporting free-loaders!
As far as I’m concerned, Robert Murray and the other owners of the Crandall Canyon Mine have put blood all over the source of this PAC’s money. I’d like to see a call for all these elected officials to return their blood money or suffer the political consequences. Failure to return it is tantamount to supporting the continuation of mining safety degradation.
Political Candidates Receiving Contributions from
MURRAY ENERGY CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
Candidate Name Office Party State $ Dollar Amount
ALLEN, GEORGE SENATE Republican VA 5,000
BLASDEL, CHUCK HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
CAPITO, SHELLEY MOORE HOUSE Republican WV 1,000
CHABOT, STEVE HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
CORKER, ROBERT P JR SENATE Republican TN 2,000
DAVIS, GEOFFREY C HOUSE Republican KY 5,000
DEWINE, RICHARD MICHAEL SENATE Republican OH 5,000
ENSIGN, JOHN ERIC SENATE Republican NV 5,000
FOLTIN, CRAIG MR. HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
GRAMS, RODNEY DWIGHT SENATE Republican MN 5,000
HARRIS, KATHERINE SENATE Republican FL 5,000
ISAKSON, JOHN HARDY SENATE Republican GA 10,000
KEAN, THOMAS H JR HOUSE Republican NJ 5,000
KENNEDY, MARK RAYMOND SENATE Republican MN 5,000
KYL, JON SENATE Republican AZ 5,000
PADGETT, JOY HOUSE Republican OH 5,000
PARKE, GREGORY TARL SENATE Republican VT 1,000
POMBO, RICHARD HOUSE Republican CA 5,000
PRYCE, DEBORAH D. HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
RICKETTS, PETE SENATE Republican NE 2,000
SANTORUM, RICHARD J SENATE Republican PA 5,000
SCHMIDT, JEANNETTE H HOUSE Republican OH 1,000
STEELE, MICHAEL SENATE Republican MD 5,000
TALENT, JAMES MATTHES SENATE Republican MO 5,000
TIBERI, PATRICK J HOUSE Republican OH 1,000