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1 Comment [ View ]Penalties should be paid
A year after the Crandall Canyon coal mine collapsed, killing six miners and, 10 days later, three more miners attempting a rescue, it's time to ask what sort of punishment will actually be meted out for the negligence involved.
There was, after all, negligence; that's what 1,400 pages of government reports say. As The Associated Press has been reporting for the past couple of weeks, the U.S. Department of Labor, in various reports resulting from various investigations, says there's plenty of blame to go around.
* A company that is a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. was wrong to dig the coal in the way that it was being extracted, and the engineers that company was paying made mistakes that contributed to the tragedy.
* The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration was asleep at the wheel, approving the company's mining plans and the disastrous rescue operation that ended in death.
The reports say the way the mine was being operated -- basically, depending on a series of coal "pillars" to support the roof of an area that was equal to about 69 acres a half mile deep in the mountain -- was faulty to begin with. The man-made cavern was so large, equal to about 63 football fields without end zones, that when the roof gave way, it created an earthquake registering a magnitude 3.9.
As a result of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has added about 170 inspectors to its ranks. That's too late for Crandall, perhaps, but a positive step that might prevent another tragedy from happening.
That still does not address whether the Crandall mine disaster will be swept under the rug. Will it?
Will the fines of $1.8 million levied against the mining company and its affiliated engineering firm -- reportedly the largest ever against a mining operation -- be the end of the punitive action sought by the government? Or will individuals be called to task on criminal charges? After all, nine people are dead due to negligence, the government says; that screams for justice.
If it's only about the money, it's beyond disgusting.
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Come on! Why don't you just come out and say it. You want Robert Murray drawn and quartered because he had the unmittigated gall to question both Academia and the Media - daring to point out their anti-energy and anti-capitalist bias!
-Spike
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