Independent Review of MSHA's Actions at Crandall Canyon Mine

air and water waiting for us to come get them, which they know we'll do." Once he completed
his remarks, Murray turned the briefing over to Davis, stating, "I'll turn the meeting over to
Mr. Al Davis, the District Manager of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration for
anything he would like to say and then I'll be pleased to answer any questions that you have. .
. . " Davis commented, in brief, on the removal of debris from the entries, transportation of
machinery to the mine, performance limitations of the seismic equipment, and the intended
functions of the boreholes. Thereafter, Murray asked the assembled reporters if they had any
questions. A number of questions were asked by the reporters and Murray undertook
responsibility for responding to the overwhelming majority of those questions.
On the morning of Tuesday, August 7 th , at approximately 9:15 a.m. MDT, another press
conference was conducted. For many reasons, this briefing was particularly illustrative of the
subordinate role to which MSHA's primary communicators had at the press briefings. During
this briefing, Murray again assumed the role of chief spokesperson and primary
communicator, stating that the press would "hear from Mr. Davis later." As with the press
briefing discussed above, Murray provided comments at length, many of which were
unsubstantiated and/or unrelated to the ongoing rescue effort. During this press briefing,
Murray:
• insisted that the ground failure was the result of an earthquake;
• stated that he and MSHA knew exactly where the missing miners were located;
• discussed his personal opinions of global warming legislation and national energy
policy, stating that "every one of these global warming bills that has been introduced in
Congress to date eliminates the coal industry and will increase your electric rate four- to
five-fold" and that "people on fixed incomes will not be able to pay their electric bills";
• provided his opinion that the coal industry is essential to the U.S. standard of living and
the ability of products manufactured in the U.S. to compete in the global marketplace;
• implored the press to "please accept my offer" to go to one of his underground Utah
coal mines once the rescue operation had concluded;
• discussed the origin and corporate relationships of Murray Energy;
• discussed his personal mining experiences;
• stated his belief that the Lord had already determined the missing miners' fate;
• stated that there was no "retreat mining" occurring in the immediate vicinity of the
miners. Further, Murray insisted that the press should:
take the word retreat mining out of [their] vocabulary
[because] those were words invented by . . . [people] . . .
who are lackeys for the United Mine Workers, and
officials at the United Mine Workers that would like to
organize this coal mine. You people don't understand
that. I'm telling you that. That's a fact! Retreat mining
had absolutely nothing to do with the disaster that
happened here, nor was there any retreat mining
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