This is resoundingly manifested by the people seen during media interviews in the aftermath of the Utah Crandall Canyon mine incident. That includes former mine managers, representatives of miners, mining engineers, mine emergency responders, Mine Safety and Health Administration personnel, mine safety experts, etc.
Unfortunately, what the public primarily saw in briefings on the Utah mine collapse was the more bombastic and less focused style of an industry executive who is not representative of those in an array of jobs advancing the nation's energy security.
Personalities, personal history and venting on general issues must not be the message sent during emergency situations. The focus must always be on the miners and their families, supported by objective information-sharing on the status of the situation.
Sadly, Bob Murray, the CEO and president of Murray Energy Corp., which owns the mine, has not performed up to this standard, and the good and responsible professionals within the coal industry and others recognize this.
The damage to the public face of the coal industry is incredible at this juncture, impacting nearly every constituency that must cooperate to solve ongoing challenges.
One provision of last year's Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, known as the MINER Act, was aimed at this very point. It clearly mandates that MSHA should maintain liaisons with the families of mine accident victims and should be the primary reporter during any public communications.
The intent of this provision was to ensure objective and accurate information-sharing on a regular basis, first with the families, and second with the the outside world. Mr. Murray's insistence on being the communicator violated this standard in several ways.
More than 350,000 dedicated people work in or have jobs related to the mining industry, including coal. They deserve better. They serve our country unselfishly. They perform their jobs well day after day. They sometimes work in hazardous conditions.
Like our soldiers and their leaders, our miners and their supervisors pursue a high standard of professionalism, and they would like the world to know it. All of us are praying for our Utah brothers and their families, and want the incident managed professionally without the distractions of personalities or controversy on side issues.
Let's collectively demand that this happens.
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* R. LARRY GRAYSON is a former coal miner, production foreman, mine engineer and underground mine superintendent who managed the merger of the former U.S. Bureau of Mines' mine safety and health research functions into the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He is a professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State University.
