I work in the mining industry and have the utmost sympathy for the miners in Utah and the author's personal experiences with mine safety.

However, the article is terribly slanted. Coal comes from many different kinds of mines and many different sources. In the surface Wyoming coal mines where I worked, we would go years without a lost-time-accident, met stringent environmental requirements, and continually reclaimed mined-out land. Wyoming's low-sulfur coal is reason fish thrive in Eastern lakes and rivers because Wyoming coal has reduced the total production of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide emissions.

Before you condemn our largest source of energy, please keep in mind where and how coal is mined. Responsible and safe mining exists, and the well-run mines of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming give us 38% of our coal energy. Let's close the bad mines, and let the good ones light our homes.

Right now I happen to have a safe job. In the past I've worked as an offshore commercial diver and a carpenter (equal to a roofer) and both of those are pretty dangerous. So maybe you should keep your mouth shut about people you know nothing about.

as long as safety standards are maintained, nuclear power creates no air pollution nor any water pollution but there is that nasty stuff known as the spent reactor fuel rod; solar energy and wind energy are held up by the fact that we lack large scale, heavy duty capacitor/battery mechanisms to store such energy for use at night or on calm, windless days; oil and natural gas have pollution concerns as well as the fact that you have to indulge in MidEast politics in order to retrieve such energy sources; Illinois coal is condemned because it has a high sulfur content, which must be removed during the combustion process before the smoke is released to the open air; space enthusiasts have long clamored for solar collector satellites parked in geosynchronous orbit above the Earth, which would beam the collected solar energy by microwave beam down to the Earth's surface: unfortunately, you would need a collection antenna array the size of Kansas to receive that beam

as for those trapped miners, where is Mother Jones when we need her the most?

A painful story and one that should have focused on the reason coal miners die: not because of our stupid energy policies; it's because mines are dangerous and under-regulated. This mine had something like 350 safety violations in the past few years. Sheer negligence, or worse.

Were these Utah miners--and so many others--murdered by the coal companies, with the tacit approval of this (and many other) administration? This son-of-a-bitch Murray cries his crocodile tears while operating a death trap!

We Salon readers know that global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels. We need a refresher course on why miners die.

Will someone in the government please arrest Robert Murray for either conspiracy to cover up blatantly unsafe mining practices, or for being insane?

Every time the man comes on TV he kicks off his rant with his continuously-repeated lie that an earthquake caved the mine in, while every credible professional scientist whose job it is to interpret seismometer readings presents evidence that the signal recorded was the cave collapsing upon itself without the aid of a natural earthquake. Listen, these pros can tell the signatures of various types of earthquakes apart from chemical explosions, nuclear explosions, cave/mine collapses, and even underwater landslides. This clown Murray is desperately trying to cover his rear while he sheds TV-ready crocodile tears about the miners. If he was so concerned about his workers' welfare over the allmighty buck of profit, he would have heeded the expert consensus and not employed retreat mining techniques to begin with.

The shame is that most Americans could give a rats rear end about what human or environmental or geopolitical damages are done to get their birthright of cheap energy to waste, since they are too busy listening to their iPods, looking at goofy YouTube videos, and playing their X-Boxes or whatever.

Who made the mine owner?

Say the black bells of Rhondda

And who killed the miner?

Say the grim bells of Blaina

They will plunder willy-nilly

Say the bells of Caerphilly

They have fangs, they have teeth

Shout the loud bells of Neath

Even God is uneasy

Say the moist bells of Swansea.

Am I to understand that these miners are slaves? Were they stockbrokers or poultry farmers or landscapers kidnapped in the dead of night and *forced* to mine for coal? What's next? "Look at American car manufacturers! Forcing us to drive their cars and die on our nation's highways!" Render unto me a freaking break.

We continue to read and see stories about American miners trapped deep underground and, apparently, not having much on their side as they await possible rescue. Nobody seems to have learned anything from last years great deep mine rescue in Australia that took over a week and was possible because the two saved men were awaiting their rescuers lying in a purpose-built superstrong personnel cage required by Australian labor law for exactly that purpose. 'The cage kept the collapsed roof above them from crushing them flat.

Those who saw the end of the rescue -- the survivors stepped out of the elevator at the pit top, waved to the waiting crowd and meticulously punched off on the time clock before walking in good shape to their families and first aid workers. Impressive evidence for the value of such cages.

Aeschylus: spoken like a true child of privilege. As if the pressures of supporting families in an era of a shrinking middle-class was just a matter of picking up and finding another (relatively) well-paying job. How about MacDonald's? No...how about becoming a lawyer?! Sheeiit!

...me again WHY these states keep voting Republican while their miners die. Must be they think it's a good thing to do.

Aah, but then they ARE the religious right, the pro-lifers. So offering up the lives of their loved ones to die on the altar of the Republican Party must be so righteous, christian and Catholic of them all.

It is truly amazing to watch their dedication to their beliefs. And the altar of sacrificing human life shows them all to be true pro-lifers, NOT.

I guess I'm just not the Pope's kind of Catholic and for that I am truly grateful. Why? Because I'm not part of their death agenda, their death agenda for political power and money.

Somehow I just can't reconcile their death agenda for others, with the teachings of Jesus.