The Lessons of Crandall Canyon

Lesson number one out of the disaster at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine: take too much out of a mountain, or out in the wrong way, and the mountain comes down. And the deeper you are in your search for coal, the more mountain there is to fall.

With coal prices high and demand soaring, the six men first lost in Crandall Canyon were very deep, re-working veins already once mined and abandoned. And the dead rescuers were headed deep as well.

This hour On Point: lessons from the Utah mining disaster, about the way we mine, the way we rescue, and the true cost of coal.

Guests:

Jeff Brady, NPR correspondent covering the Crandall Canyon mine collapse in Utah

Jeff Goodell, author of "Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future"

J. Davitt McAteer, former head of the Mine Health and Safety Administration under President Clinton