Murray (Utah mine owner) says miners won't be rescued for "one week"

[Cooley Hurd]

This motherfucker will let them die to cover the fact that they were "retreat mining"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20146566/

HUNTINGTON, Utah - Seismic activity has “totally shut down” efforts to reach six miners trapped below ground and has wiped out all the work done in the past day, a mine executive said Tuesday.

“We are back to square one underground,” said Robert E. Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., owner of the Crandall Canyon mine.

<snip>

“There is absolutely no way that through our underground rescue effort we can reach the vicinity of the trapped miners for at least one week,” Murray said.

The National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado said 10 seismic shocks have been recorded since the collapse, but only one since 3 a.m. Tuesday. That one struck at 3:42 p.m. with a magnitude of 1.7.

<snip>

Murray lashed out at the news media for suggesting his men were conducting “retreat mining,” a method in which miners pull down the last standing pillars of coal and let the roof fall in.

<snip>

Amy Louviere, a spokeswoman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration in Washington, said the men at the mine were, in fact, conducting retreat mining.

More at link:grr:

[Bluebear]

1. Will the media give Mr. Microphone another week to spout his murderous insanity?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. not that I am condoning this sort of dangerous activity

but is it illegal? and if not, why not? sounds like a dangerous game to play with a few millions tons of rock over your head...

sP

[mcctatas]

3. They will try to blame the miners if it was retreat mining

it is supposedly safe if you submit and follow an "approved plan" which just means that it is dangerous and deadly but at least owners can say "they must have strayed from the plan" :grr:

[Cooley Hurd]

4. morning kick...

...in Bob Murray's backside.:kick:

[MiniMe]

5. If he has to answer questions for another week, he will be a raving nutcase

He was close to that last night at the press conference

[Cooley Hurd]

6. I think it's safe to say he was a raving nutcase before this happened...

[PA Democrat]

7. Article in my local paper says that between 1/4 and 1/3 of mining deaths were the result of retreat

mining.

Mr. Murray owns mines here in PA where he has been no stranger to controversy.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07220/807699-357.stm

<snip>

Another order, denying UMCO/Maple Creek's High Quality Mine a permit to do full-extraction, longwall-style mining, under tributaries of Maple Creek because of the likelihood the streams would lose water flow, has been appealed to the state's Commonwealth Court by the Murray subsidiary.

<snip>

Mr. Murray's companies have also filed a federal lawsuit against DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty and four other DEP mining office officials, alleging his mine was singled out for unequal and arbitrary enforcement because the officials didn't like Mr. Murray.

At the time, Mr. Murray blamed politics in Harrisburg for the mine shut down that idled 500 workers.

"Political changes happened in Harrisburg," he said during testimony in his appeal of the DEP permit ruling. "This is not about anything that Bob Murray did."

[spinbaby]

8. A couple of points here

There are many kinds of retreat mining, including longwall which is very safe. What they were doing in Utah is called pillaring and it's not safe.

Also, I live near Maple Creek mine and know guys who used to work there. The rumor is that Murray deliberately set up the fuss with the DEP so he could blame environmentalists on the mine shutdown when really he wanted to shut it down all along because it was union. Just a rumor among former employees, mind you.

[King Coal]

10. Actually Spinbaby, it's called "pulling pillars".

I did it for years, and it can be dangerous, but it pays a lot of money. It did when I did it anyway. It's a two-way street.

[spinbaby]

11. The miners I know call it pillaring

Maybe it's regional?

[King Coal]

13. Yeah, probably. I'm sure it's the same thing.

I'll tell you something that you may think is BS, but it's true. A full moon can cause the back to fall in a ballroom. I've seen it happen too many times for it to be a coincidence.

[spinbaby]

14. Tides are mysterious forces

Around here I hear that heat and humidity can cause falls. Of course, in the winter I hear that cold causes falls.

[malaise]

9. Murray's problem is that in his first press conference

it was he who mentioned retreat mining. He also knows his own 'not so safe' record, and came out swinging yesterday because the seismologists contradicted his nonsense about the 'earthquake' shortly after his first press conference.

[spinbaby]

12. More about Murray from a local paper

Robert Murray, who also owns Maple Creek Mining Inc. and UMCO High Quality Mine in Washington County, fired an employee who was arrested in 2005 for lying to the state to win approval of a mining permit. His company has been fined over the death of a miner and received more than 500 federal citations over the course of a year, some of which involved serious safety problems.

"It's ugly," said state Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, a member of the House Coal Caucus. "He's notorious for his problems here."

http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/08_08_Bob_Murray_in_Pennsylvania

[Cooley Hurd]

15. Like I've said before, he's like a fat Monty Burns...

Something else - I heard an interview with one of the miner's relatives and they weren't speaking English. Could one or some of the miners be undocumented workers? Wouldn't this also be a motive for Murray to not want them out alive?

[spinbaby]

16. Three are Mexican citizens

Wouldn't know about how legal they are.

[Cooley Hurd]

17. I hate being cynical, but his performance yesterday was beyond bizzare...

...like a guy who knows his secrets are buried with the trapped miners.x(