One Utah

Things get pretty angry here at One Utah. Heck- that’s one of the reasons I read and write for it. But anger can be a positive influence. It motivates many of us into taking immediate action- even if it’s just out of self-defense. Here in Utah, we have a serious problem that needs to be [...]

The Crandall Canyon disaster hearings are doing what they’re designed to do: get to the truth behind failures of federally-regulated industries and projects. But the mining company, federal government and our own senior U.S. senator are coal-walling them. After Day One, mine owner Robert Murray and MSHA chief Richard Stickler are trapped in their own [...]

A new study shows that Americans are about the laziest workers in the world. Seems odd given that generations of us have grown up believing America is THE land of opportunity and the way you get ahead, especially in Utah, is by hard work, creativity and, above all, money. But in the decades following World [...]

As Utah anxiously watches modern-day robber baron Robert Murray cry to his mommy over those nasty things Governor Huntsman said about him, punitively lay off our fellow citizens and shutter his death-trap mines, we all need to read Jeff Goodell’s excellent reality check on coal: The future for Utah is not coal but the extraordinary [...]

Utah’s governor says: “The federal mine safety system is broken. Congress needs to take a good look at this to make sure it never happens again.”
Utah’s senior U.S. Senator says: “Richard Stickler is a very competent MSHA official. He has done his best to see that the job is done right.”
Which one sounds closer to [...]

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 [...]

Why are we blaming Nature for the totally HUMAN-caused suffering and death at the Crandall Canyon mine? First Robert Murray. Now, Orrin “Sticking my Foot in My” Hatch refers to the botched mop-up-turned-rescue-turned-chaos-and-death operation as a “natural disaster.”
It wasn’t an earthquake. The “bumps” and shifting were caused by the mining of the mountain, [...]

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 [...]

On the heels of the Crandall Canyon disaster and numerous rejections of new coal plants nationwide, this urgent message comes from Tim Wagner of Utah’s chapter of the Sierra Club:
Dear Clean Energy and Clean Air Activists,
Our friends in Sevier County desperately need our help. The Sevier Power Company is pushing hard to obtain clearances to [...]

Listening to Crandall Canyon mine owner Robert Murray on TV the other day, I heard him but saw only rainbows, twinkling stars and happy children playing outside in the middle of January. Here was the operator of a notorious facility in a notorious industry not pulling the community together and giving us the truth about [...]

Let me begin by saying I apologize. I’ve been gone promoting my new movie, hob-nobbing with Hollywood bigshots and lowlifes, and basking in the human-induced tanning machine that is southern California for a while (note driving with the top down and AC off to prevent damage to ozone-layer but lack of hands-free cell headset to [...]

3018 Old City Park Road
Moab, Utah 84532-3472
June 16, 2007
The Hon. Orrin Hatch
104 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4402
Dear Senator Hatch:
In the next few weeks you will have the opportunity to vote on a package of energy, fuels, and transportation initiatives. I urge you to protect our future by supporting strong fuel economy, renewable [...]