Americans have a seemingly insatiable appetite for electricity. They have their iPhones, Blackberries, laptops, PDAs and mp3 players. And that covers only the new gadgets. The average home has a lot more, ranging from large televisions to refrigerators so advanced, some of them come with built-in computers or televisions of their own. And now, with gasoline prices high, hybrid vehicles are demanding their share of electricity, as well.
The Crandall Canyon Mine disaster should serve as a grim reminder to all that electricity may be cheap, but it does not come cheaply.
At this point, the fate of the six trapped miners at Crandall Canyon remains uncertain. But too many mines already serve as graves for trapped workers in this country. Too many others have been the site of accidents that killed scores of people who left home in the morning supposing they were in for just another day of work.
Coal mining is a dangerous profession. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that fatalities last year were more than double the number in the previous year. And the amount of coal mining going on in the nation is increasing rapidly, trying to keep pace with the demands from new coal-fired electrical plants — a demand fueled mainly by all of those gadgets in all those homes.
The least the nation can do is get more serious about policing safety violations in mines.
A Deseret Morning News study, published Sunday, found that federal mine inspectors have cited Utah coal mines more than 5,000 times since 2004 for safety violations. Of those, more than 1,800 were "significant and substantial." The government fines mines hundreds of thousands of dollars for violations, and yet there is reason to believe many mine owners simply consider this a cost of doing business as they try to maintain profit margins. Several violations are repeated again and again.
Critics say a get-tough attitude that includes shutting down mines would improve safety records. Perhaps that is so. A new federal law makes many requirements that mine owners have yet to achieve. The Utah disaster ought to at least spur more discussion on how to ensure safety.
The good news is that life in mines is safer than it ever has been in the United States, and Utah is among the safest of mining states. One need look only to China, where a flood in a coal mine may have killed 172 miners, to see that things are worse elsewhere.
But comparisons and statistics mean nothing to the trapped miners and their loved ones. Americans don't appear ready to lose their appetite for power. But they should demand greater protections for those who make all that juice possible.