ACCCE Response to the Huffington Post: Stick to the Facts

The Huffington Post yesterday chose to address workplace safety issues in the U.S. coal mining industry in light of the release of the federal investigative agency's report on the Crandall Canyon accident and mine safety by posting a blog.  Amazingly they chose to highlight this blog by posting an illustration of a coal miner being crucified, similarly to that of Jesus Christ.

What the Huffington Post is trying so callously to imply is their own personal opinion that the mining industry is not committed to safety.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If one looks at the facts, one clearly sees that the coal mining industry has made great strides in improving worker safety and, in fact today, has a safety record that rivals the manufacturing, retail, and even health care industries.  That said, everyone agrees that one accident is one too many and that is why the coal industry is committed to further improvements in worker safety aimed at achieving a zero-accident frequency.

We mourn with the families of those nine miners who were taken from us in an untimely fashion. We hope that the Huffington Post will join us in our grief and respect those families by removing this illustration from their site.

Comments

[pvdl1969]

Blog rebuttals are more effective if you link to that which you are discussing.

I'll go look at the HuffPo, but just a friendly suggestion for you :-)

[pvdl1969]

Ok, I went to the HuffPo and found the post you're talking about.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/king-coal-willing-to-kill_b_115157.html

I would like to say that as a opponent of coal power, I find the graphic to be truly inappropriate. There are definitely safety issues to be addressed in the coal mining industry (understatement!) but the point of the post could have been made without the graphic.

Be assured, there are those of us who will argue with the ACCCE logically and cordially; we're not all given to inappropriate rhetoric.

So let's discuss! Spirited debate can be lots of fun. I actually joined in a clean coal online chat with a Shell representative, and it was really, really informative. I had my points of disagreement, and Shell had their points, but at least we got to talk about it, with minimal spin. Good stuff.

[debbydoom]

I have been fighting the construction of a coal fired power plant in my valley for the past 7 yrs. So far, they have not broken ground, and 2 of the 3 county commissioners who were pushing this proposal have removed from office thru the vote.
There is no such thing as clean coal, but my biggest problem with the coal industry are the gargantuan SUBSIDIES (welfare funded by taxpayers) that are routinely given to the coal corporations for "research" into so called "clean coal"... where are the equivalent "subsidies" for other clean alternative and renewable energy sources? As long as coal continues to rake in "free money" (like Halliburton in Iraq), coal will be considered down and dirty for more than one reason.
DebbyDoom