- 16 miners killed recently in 3 separate incidents in West Virginia, plus 1 in Kentucky.
- 72 trapped miners survived an accident in a potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada.
- George Bush told America, during his State of the Union address, that he would pour more money into "clean coal" technology.
There is a story here, and it's not being told...
more below...
IN ORDER TO GET ANSWERS, WE NEED TO ASK QUESTIONS.
Question 1: What makes the Canadian story different?
All 72 Trapped Canadian Miners Rescued
ESTERHAZY, Saskatchewan, Jan. 30, 2006(CBS/AP) Rescuers retrieved all 72 central Canadian potash miners who were trapped underground by a fire and survived until Monday by using oxygen, food and water stored in subterranean emergency chambers.
This is the same exact kind of emergency scenario that killed the Americans, only with more potential victims.
Question 2:Why don't American mines have those emergency chambers?
A rescue team reached one of the rooms late Sunday, after the mining company had been unable to establish a radio link with the 30 miners in that room for 18 hours.
They made sure everyone was safe, and then closed them back inside until the air inside the mine could be cleared of toxic gases, Hamilton said.
The other 40 miners were separated into two groups in other safe rooms, and were in phone contact with rescuers.
Question 3: Why don't American rescue operations work that efficiently?
"A lot of them said they had a good sleep down there in the refuge station," he said. "They were pretty calm. They had water, they had food, they had all the stuff that they needed."
Question 4: Why don't American miners have that peace of mind?
The deaths galvanized state legislators in West Virginia, who passed new mine safety rules signed into law Thursday by Gov. Joe Manchin. The bill will provide miners with emergency communicators and tracking devices, extra air supplies underground, and to require mining companies to report accidents within 15 minutes or face heavy fines.
Question 5: Why did it take multiple tragedies to make this an issue in America, when the common sense of proper emergency preparedness was clearly seen by our neighbors to the north?
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants
Question 6: Will you let the President continue to put his promotion of coal ahead of the immediate safety needs of miners?
WILL YOU MAKE THIS AN ISSUE?
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I must say, I am not entirely decided on coal gasification technology. Maybe it is worth a look. However, I find it insulting that the only time the word coal came up in a frigging STATE OF THE UNION speech mere days after numerous coal tragedies and a very important non-tragedy, the only time it came up at all was in the quoted line above, which might have been uttered by an executive in the American coal industry, an industry which has a blind eye toward worker safety, and who can blame them- the way things are set up, it's cheaper to ignore the rules and (maybe) pay the fine, than to have to set up some fancy, elitist emergency room.