Ken SchreinerCrandall Canyon: Old Disaster, New Direction
What’s left to say about the disaster that is Crandall Canyon? The federal government and a strident, political mine owner tell us they know what they’re doing. They refuse help from a highly-trained, unionized mine rescue team. They ignore reports showing continuous, human-induced seismic activity in the mountain. Now, after more than a week of virtually no progress, a huge toll on manpower and human emotions, three miners are killed and six injured in a rescue attempt that had only gotten one-third of the way to the trapped miners. Heckuva job, Blackie.
Many residents of the area and all of Utah have turned against mine owner Robert Murray for his lack of candor, his politicizing of the disaster, ignoring scientific evidence, denying dangerous procedures and safety conditions, and that’s just the top of the list. But instead of directing rage at the obvious targets, let’s look at what should be done- unless of course, you buy the propaganda and think coal is indispensible and we must die either getting it or breathing it.
As I wrote earlier here, we don’t need coal anymore. Utah has an abundance of alternative energy sources available now: solar, geothermal, wind, biomass, hydro, and yes, nuclear to name the major players. Some things are worth dying for: freedom, love, honor, maybe Doritos. Coal is not. Those days ended years ago. The coal industry knows it. That’s why they’re cutting costs and lashing out, desperate to hang on to what little credibility and ill-gotten wealth they have left.
Utah stands at a crossroads in this state’s history. We can choose to continue to watch miners die crushing, torturous deaths to satisfy the lust of the Robert Murrays of America. We can continue to watch our children develop respiratory diseases, and sit idly in their classrooms because they can’t go outside to play due to an air pollution alert. Or we can choose a new, safer, healthier direction that promises to be as economically dynamic as coal began centuries ago.
Congress, our president, and our legislature must all act now to improve mine conditions while mapping strategy with Gov. Huntsman’s task force to wean Utah off fossil fuels, especially coal, for the sake of our miners, our children, and everyone who lives here and downwind (notice I didn’t even mention global warming). We as individuals must cut our power use to cut coal burning and improve our air. And we must consider investing in renewable energy sources for our homes and vehicles just as we would getting a new roof, building an addition or taking a luxury vacation. Congress, our president, and state legislature must approve more subsidies to help lower-income homebuyers and owners to afford renewable energy systems, like other states already have.
If we don’t, things will get a lot worse before they get better. More of us will die young: crushed beneath tons of black rock, or from pollution-related health problems that now account for 40% of the world’s deaths.
Enough is enough. The time to act is now.
