Mine Owner Faces Old Foes After Collapse

Aug. 8, 2007— -- Bob Murray, chairman of Murray Energy, does not have a reputation for keeping his opinions to himself.

As six miners who work at a Utah coal mine that his company co-owns and operates remained trapped 1,500 feet underground Tuesday, Murray was on the offensive, insisting it was an earthquake and not dangerous mining procedures that had led to the collapse.

Murray, a former miner who survived two accidents on the job before mortgaging his home to found his company, has in the past taken on politicians pushing for more stringent safety measures, the environmental lobby and labor unions.

In the aftermath of Monday's collapse at Crandall Canyon mine in Emery County, Utah, some of those old foes, including a U.S. senator, have offered new rebukes.

After last year's Sago mine disaster in which 12 men were trapped and killed in West Virginia, Murray opposed legislation by lawmakers there and in his home state of Ohio that would require miners to wear emergency tracking devices.

Murray called the proposed legislation "extremely misguided" and accused the politicians of "playing politics with my employees' safety," the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Before the mine collapse, the businessman was most well known as a staunch detractor of global warming.

"The science of global warming is suspect," Murray told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in June.

"Climate change or the so-called global warming issue is a human one," he said. "Reducing carbon emissions will impact our poorest families worst. All you are doing with this Draconian legislation is destroying American families' standard of living, their ability to have jobs, and export jobs to China."

At the hearing, Murray had a heated exchange with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., over clean coal technology.

"Instead of actively fighting those working for cleaner coal, the one thing Murray should now focus on is workers' safety. That should be his only priority," Boxer told ABCNEWS.com.

In a May editorial, Murray wrote in MarketWatch: "While some want us to believe that the science behind so-called global warming is certain, to the contrary, the actual environmental risk associated with carbon emissions is highly speculative."