Ken SchreinerCrandall Canyon Disaster: Katrina Comes to Utah; Kick the Bums Out
The Monday morning quarterbacking on the Huntington mine fiasco began that first Monday morning August 6. Two Monday mornings later, the situation is worse than ever and there’s no answer in sight. Sound familiar? It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and as my earlier post shows, the handling of the disaster by federal and state authorities was and continues to be, a disaster. However, unlike Katrina (mostly), Crandall Canyon’s disasters are not “natural” as our illustriously-ill-informed Sen. Orrin Hatch drooled yesterday.
The federal MSHA, with the mine company, has legal jurisdiction over this matter-NOT OUR OWN STATE. They’ve earnestly represented themselves as “in charge” while a dangerously zany mine owner grabbed the mic from them and told us all to “sit down and shut up” in an Alexander Haig homage (thanks for the timely resurrection of Reagan, Cliff). Yes, we’ve heard it before: “I’m in charge.” “Heckuva job, Brownie.” “Mission Accomplished.” As the days went on, it became hauntingly apparently that neither Robert Murray, the mine owner, or the MSHA were in control though they were in charge. This reality culminated in the tragic events of August 16.
As the MSHA and Murray placated the media and townsfolk, Gov. Huntsman stood painfully helpless in the background (the sling didn’t help). It’s symbolic of how helpless we the residents of Utah have been in trying to save our fellow citizens. Heck, Murray and the feds refused help from an expert team of Utah mine rescuers. They didn’t even believe our seismologists. This helplessness is no “accident” as they claim. It’s the design. As Katrina showed, it doesn’t work. It’s about them maintaining control over us. And we, the people of Utah, pay the ultimate price while they walk away with jobs and limbs intact.
Even as the nightmare continues, many Utahns, even families and friends of the trapped, injured and deceased miners, have jumped off the prayers and floodlights bandwagon and joined the pound of flesh mob. Why? Because they feel helpless. The people “in charge” let them down again without giving us even a chance to help ourselves. The MSHA promised reforms after the Sago disaster in West Virginia and little if anything has changed. Maybe the Utah legislature will do something. But what can they do if mine safety is federal jurisdiction?
Like paying for Iraq? Like paying for costly, ill-fated, federally-run “assistance?” Like watching good people die horribly and needlessly to make another old white guy rich and your children asthmatic? If we are not allowed to control our own destiny in our own state, we must expect more Sagos, Katrinas and Crandalls. In this case, the answer begins with energy independence. We must get the federal government, the Bob Murrays and other power-mad multi-national, absentee corporate creeps out of Utah’s business. It begins with developing alternative and renewable energy systems that are not lorded over by distant, incompetent government agencies and wealthy, disinterested out-of-state land owners. The more dependent we are on their coal and their oil, the more they’ve got us by the privates. The only way it will change is if we change it.
August 18th, 2007 at 10:35 am
The problem isn’t the level at which the issue is controlled, Ken. Utah politics is dominated by people of a similar mindset to that of those running the executive—perhaps even more so. If we are to avert such problems in the future, we need to get rid of the corporate apologists in both national and local government, demand more rigorous enforcement of safety and maintenance regulations, and encourage the politicians to budget a sensible amount for emergency preparedness and infrastructure maintenance instead of recklessly slashing spending in the name of “small government.”
August 18th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I’m for all that. My understanding is Utah gave up control of its mines 30 years ago for the reason you stated: “slashing spending in the name of small government.” But Utah is among the states, probably a more severe case, where relinquishing control is a fatal mistake, literally. We can change that too: by voting out the “corporate apologists” who enable the feds and absentee profiteers to exploit us and our resources as in Crandall Canyon. The impossible task is to convince the brainwashed that freedom good and slavery bad, life good and death bad, and renewable energy good and coal bad. I’m not so naive as to believe it will ever happen. But it’s fun to think about. There’s a difference between small government and independent government. Right now, Utah talks the talk on both.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Utah talks a lot about small government, but we have the most modern, gorgeous government buildings around. All filled with beautiful works of art. To heck with the rest of our infrastructure. People must respect their government buildings or society will fail.
August 20th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I’ve lived all over the country. Utah, frankly, sometimes reminds me of a place from the 1950s. It’ll be interesting to see when the batteries on the clocks die- ostensibly from lack of coal.