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May
9
As a refresher, Pepper Pike’s own Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, which owned and operated the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah which collapsed and resulted in nine deaths in 2007, has given a lot of money to Republicans in Ohio’s legislature. Here’s a post about that money flow, and here’s a post about the mine collapse.
Today, the New York Times writes that a congressional investigation, the results of which were released yesterday, has found that the collapse was preventable. (You can read the report here.)
On Aug. 6, the pillars that supported the roof in a section of the mine gave way in a major collapse that left six miners fatally entombed. Ten days later, three miners who were working as rescuers died after more tunnels fell.
The deaths were avoidable, Mr. Miller said. He cited the investigation’s findings that in March, five months before the disaster in the south section of the mine, a similar collapse had occurred in a northern section, offering clear “red flags” that the mine was unstable.
Rather than informing the proper federal mining officials about the true extent of the March collapse, the investigation by the House Committee on Education and Labor found that the mine operator cleaned up the site and went on with work in a nearby section.
“Even after the near-disaster in March,” Mr. Miller said in a memorandum released Thursday, “the company forged ahead with plans to do the same kind of retreat mining in the South Barrier that it had done, with nearly catastrophic consequences, in the North Barrier.” [emphasis added]
There’s a little thing in the law called foreseeability. I’m not sure of the definition of criminal negligence, but I’m certain that some of lawyer bloggy friends can analyze the situation Murray and others face.
Murray’s attorneys don’t like the report:
The counsel for Murray Energy, Kevin N. Anderson, attacked the report and accused Mr. Miller of disclosing “unfounded conclusions” and trying “to concoct a criminal referral concerning the tragedy.”
He said in a statement that the company was more interested to see what federal mine safety officials found in their investigation. He added that the call for a criminal investigation was a “callous inference” based on “a radically incomplete review of the facts.”
But the victims’ families are unimpressed with that critique:
But a lawyer for relatives of the dead miners said the findings in the report were troubling.
“The nine miners who died would all be alive today if Murray Energy had heeded the clear warning signs that were there to see after the March bounce,” said Colin King, a lawyer in Salt Lake City. “Instead the company continued with its same plan to pull out all the coal because of their greed and that makes their conduct worse than negligent.”
He said the families filed a lawsuit against the company last month.
By the end of the article, all I can think about is the amount of taxpayer dollars going into examining the screw-ups of for-profit entities that resulted in the deaths of workers – six of whom are still entombed in the mine.
And what are the company folks contributing to the resolution of this disaster and the prevention of future ones?
To conduct the investigation, the committee was also given subpoena power to take depositions.
All five employees of the companies associated with the mine who were called to testify, including Mr. Murray, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to cooperate. Three current or former federal mining officials and one official from the Bureau of Land Management were also asked for depositions; they all complied.
Uh-huh.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:32 am May 9th, 2008 in Business, Congress, Crime, Government, Law, Pepper Pike, Politics, Utilities
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5 Responses to “[update] Congress recommends criminal inquiry into Crandall Canyon collapse, local energy company”
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Jill said:
I really don’t know how to make this any more clear but in my world, because I exercised my right to vote and I voted for Clinton, this does not make me a supporter.
Now THAT is DOUBLESPEAK. A supporter is one who promotes the interest or cause of someone or something. That is what you did when you voted for Clinton. You may feel regrets about it now. Any imperfect person has regrets from time to time. However, you did support Hillary Clinton at one time. If you feel otherwise, perhaps you should run for office. You would be an expert at doublespeak.
Jill,
You are not a writer. You are an apologist. And you do an excellent job of one thing: obfuscating truth. Instead of admitting that you supported Clinton at one time, you attempt to change the definition of support.
As long as ignorance exists, there will always be fodder for your written works. An audience with discernment makes your material irrelevant.
Hillary Has Lost: this is your second off-topic comment on this post. I emailed you before to say that I typically delete comments that have zero to do with the posts at which they appear.
Consider this your second warning. Next time, I delete it.
Likewise, you are astroturfing with this comment since it is a cut and paste of what you left at the Moderate Voice.
Again, the next time you do this, it will be deleted. Feel free to email me and/or comment on any thread, so long as you are on point.
Otherwise, my blog, my rules. Stay on point and do not astroturf.
Thank you for the traffic.
Hillary Has Lost:
Jill’s writing is so irrelevant that you follow her on numerous blogs and double post comments? -What does that say about you? Just so you know Hillary was the Dem’s better chance to beat McCain. Empty vessel Obama will not win the general election. Only the Dems can snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory so adroitly.
Best, Joe
Thanks, Joe. I’m sure you sometimes think what I write is irrelevant, but at least you usually back it up with some reason why you think that, based in reality as opposed to ad hominem lobs.
Thanks for the support.