Senate panel report blames company, mine-safety agency for Crandall Canyon mine disaster

A congressional committee investigating last year's cave-ins at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine issued its report yesterday, and blame the nine deaths federal officials and Murray Energy, owned by Robert Murray, left.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee report said the coal operator "ignored substantial warning signs, may have been conducting unauthorized mining and had an illegal agreement with federal regulators on reporting standards," reports Thomas Burr of The Salt Lake Tribune. The panel's report also blamed the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration "for missing 'significant flaws' in engineering analysis of the mine and ignoring several red flags, including an earlier cave-in that the report says should have been more thoroughly probed."

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said the report should lead to a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. MSHA said such speculation should wait until after the agency's Accident Investigation Team has delivered its report. Michael O. McKown, general counsel of UtahAmerican Energy, Inc., the subsidiary of Murray Energy that operated the mine, fired back at Kennedy's report in his statement. "This report is politically motivated, irresponsible and unjustified," McKown said. The report is available here.