The Crandall Canyon disaster was not an accident. The situation makes a tidy exemplum of "governance" under the Republican worldview: corrupt, hyperpoliticized, knee-jerk anti-regulatory, and "pro-business" to the extent of risking of human life. So a little story, which I urge you to pass on -- especially to friends who aren't already on "our side" of the issues:
Robert Murray owns the Crandall Canyon mine. The New York Times gave him practically a hero's treatment on Sunday, describing him as emerging from the mine "with a coal-blackened face and in miner's coveralls to discuss the latest finding with the families of the missing miners." CNN's Anderson Cooper called Murray "the public face of this ordeal, keeping the families up to date -- he meets with them once or twice a day -- trying to explain the latest rescue efforts." The rest of the biggest news outlets (Fox, MSNBC, the Washington Post) have taken similar sympathy trips with the owner.
But who is Robert Murray and how did we get here?
Murray's company owns 19 mines in 5 states. One, the Galatia mine in Southern Illinois , has been cited for 869 safety violations so far this year, leading one mining expert to accuse the company of "just going for the production and not going for the safety." 21 of these violations were followed by "shutdown orders" for areas of the mine after mine managers failed to act in response to notification of violations.
Crandall Canyon , site of the current tragedy, had a relatively good record in terms of number of violations. However, a memo obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune indicated that operators experienced serious structural problems in the mine in March and entirely abandoned work in an area about 300 yards from where the miners were trapped. Mine owner Murray claims this is the "first time I've heard of this," and the mine operating company would not return calls from the Tribune.
Last year, the ownership of Crandall Canyon informed the state of Utah that it would be "pulling pillars." This refers to the removal of coal deposits which previously were left in place to provide structural support for the mine. This is also called "retreat mining," the term being used most commonly in the press. Tony Oppegard, former senior adviser at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), said the "retreat mining" being done at Crandall poses serious risks, and raises questions about the thoroughness of MSHA review processes MSHA administrator Richard Stickler acknowledged in June that there were broader, "deeply disturbing" problems in enforcement programs leading up to the 2006 disasters at the Sago, Aracoma and Darby mines that killed 19 people. However, MSHA officials told The Charleston Gazette that potential risks posed by retreat mining in Crandall Canyon were corrected and the plan was approved. Robert Ferriter, director of the mine safety program at the Colorado School of Mines and a 27-year veteran of MSHA, asks: "What is MSHA doing in all this? They're the ones who are supposed to catch this sort of thing."
According to a family member of one of the miners who was briefed by rescue workers, the trapping of the men was caused by a "heave," a coal miner's term for when the floor rises. According to Jerry Tien, associate professor of mining engineering at the University of Missouri , such events can result from seismic activity or downward force on pillars. (The latter of which would be exacerbated by the pulling of support pillars during "retreat mining.") While mine owner Murray has insisted that a 3.9 magnitude earthquake caused the accident, seismology experts have concluded that the collapse itself caused the subsequent tectonic event.
Initially, the sources briefed by rescue workers spoke only on condition of anonymity -- for fear that their relatives would be fired. Sources told Utah newspapers that their family members (the miners) had expressed concerns about safety, but were hesitant to complain as it would mean loss of their jobs. Murray denied this, saying: "If you're getting that from the community, then those miners must work for another mining company. I don't operate that way." Paul Riddle, who used to work in one of Murray's mines, disagrees: "Always profits before safety, that's my opinion, my feeling, my experience."
Murray's history supports Riddle's assertion. Jeff Young of West Virginia Public Radio reported back in 2003 that Murray repeatedly threatened to have MSHA employees fired. Notes from meetings with MSHA employees included Murray's threatening "I will have your jobs. They are gone. The clock is ticking." He also bragged about getting inspectors in Pennsylvania demoted. One inspector, Tim Thompson, was warned to "get his ass in gear" or else he'll be "riding a desk somewhere" -- a few months later, Thompson was removed as head of the Pennsylvania 3rd District and transferred to a district away from Murray 's mines. He has never been given a reason for his transfer.
Bob Murray has friends. Big friends. In the Republican Party. Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader reported on Murray's shouting at a table full of MSHA officials back in 2002: "[Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and the last I checked, he was sleeping with your boss!" "Their boss" referred to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao -- Senator McConnell's wife. The aforementioned Tim Thompson, himself a Republican, was so worried about his career that he sent a letter in 2006 to Senator McConnell making it clear that he didn't blame the senator or his wife for his problems. In total, Murray has given over $800,000 to Republican politicians in the last decade. Mine owners, more broadly, are a major source of campaign funds for Senator McConnell.
Bob Murray hates government oversight. Following the Sago disaster, Murray attacked a proposal in the Ohio legislature that would have created a mining emergency operations center and required workers to wear wireless communications devices. "I resent these politicians playing politics with my employees' safety," he told the Columbus Dispatch. Phil Smith, communications director for the United Mineworkers of America, summarizes: "Anything that will cost Bob Murray any extra money he will find reason to find fault with it."
And when the catastrophe happened, cuddly press-favorite Bob Murray was in full denial. In his first media briefing, Murray defended the coal industry, viciously attacked the media, and irrelevantly railed against what he called a "foolhardy crusade against global warming" that "jeopardized [his] industry...and America's economy." James Lukaszewski, president of The Lukaszewski Group, a crisis management consulting firm, characterized the event as "blame-shifting." (So much for the "Party of Personal Responsibility.") Murray, on Fox News, once called New York Senator Hillary Clinton "anti-American" for saying that the country needs a President willing to defend workers' rights.
So with foxes like Murray running around, who's watching the henhouse?
"Mine safety czar" Richard Stickler is an industry insider. His biography notes six years as director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety, and 37 years in the industry. What this vague commentary fails to explain is that most of this time was spent as an Executive -- a situation which led the wife and daughter of a miner killed at Sago to write lawmakers urging them to reject Stickler's nomination: "Mr. Stickler is a longtime coal executive and because of his connections with the coal industry, we are concerned that his primary objectives may be solely on compliance and production, not on miners' health and safety." Statistics reveal that the mines Stickler managed from 1989 to 1996 had injury rates double the national average.
Skepticism about Stickler was near-universal. In addition to criticism from West Virginia Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said he "didn't think Mr. Stickler was the right man for the job."
Despite Republican control of the Senate, it appeared Bush did not have the votes to get Stickler's appointment through. Exhibiting his usual contempt for Congress, the President solved this problem with a recess appointment -- thus bypassing the requirement for Congressional approval. Bush's decision in late 2005 left even the far-right Senator Rick Santorum "disappointed."
So let's re-cap how this works:
-Big business hates oversight.
-Big business donates millions to Republican politicians in positions to make bureaucratic appointments.
-Political cronies and allies of the businessmen are then appointed to important posts in government regulatory agencies.
-When they appear unsalable, the President simply bypasses Congress.
-Appointment of these cronies weakens oversight, even in the areas of human health and safety
-This pleases big business, who save a few bucks cutting corners.
-These gutted regulatory agencies fail to do their jobs.
-People suffer.
-The businessmen blame the media, environmentalists, anyone else possible while continuing to use their connections and money to attack any individuals trying to effectively regulate them.
The circle goes around. Americans become increasingly cynical about government. Enron, Katrina, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq... "Republicans tell America that government doesn't work -- and then they get elected and prove it." Ironically, this helps their rhetoric every campaign cycle when they scream on behalf of "American individualism" about how "big government" is the enemy of liberty and freedom and the market and so on...
And it's one great fucking scam.
What we have here is a clear pattern of behavior, consistent with a particular worldview, aided and abetted by abuse of the political system (a political system which the perpetrators don't believe in anyway,) visible in every aspect of the last six years of American politics.
Simply put, this is the hallmark of Republican governance.
Had enough?
Selected sources:
http://blog.aflcio.org/...
http://www.cnn.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
http://www.kentucky.com/...
http://www.nctimes.com/...
http://www.sltrib.com/...
http://www.sltrib.com/...
http://www.sltrib.com/...
http://www.sltrib.com/...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
http://www.wvpubcast.org/...