Coal CEO Lets It All Out:"Obama Is Nation's Great Destroyer"

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 10:42 am

After laying off 1,400 of his coal workers (21% of his workforce) Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray said this:

[Murray] said President Barack Obama's administration has issued regulations that illegally bypass the states and their utility commissions, the U.S. Congress and the Constitution in favor of putting the U.S. EPA in charge of the nation's electric grid. Murray, speaking at a Republican gathering at the July 22 Lincoln Day Dinner, touted his company's four lawsuits being brought against the administration's Clean Power Plan, an effort to rein in carbon dioxide emissions.

Murray continued, saying that the coal workers affected by Obama's policies are among the highest paid in the regions where they live, but also have no one to sell their homes to when they lose their jobs.

"Thus, these people are prohibited from working and fall to the negative side of the economic ledger for the rest of their lives," Murray said. "This is not the America that I have always cherished. Well, I am obviously not giving up. Nor should you. We have the law, science, economics, cold hard energy facts and the Constitution on our side. Our cause is right. It is right for the coal industry and our communities and America. … We must continue to do whatever we can to overcome the insanity of our current government."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-25/furious- ... -destroyer

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 12:38 pm

Many decades ago wood was king until coal came along & they kind of shared the spotlight, then along came oil & it's by-products, natural gas & so on but it once again was shared mostly because of cost & location. The others have all been quieter & less intrusive but tolerated by king oil, it will all run out sooner than later if used as the main source, all have faults & advantages & all will have a longer duration if shared. Less short term gain but rather a prolonged long term gain. From what I have read recently coal has been on a bit of an upswing as of late, perhaps they should quietly be thankful for what they have while they still have it.

Just a thought!

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 4:04 pm

Coal company stocks collapsing in unison, coal companies entering bankruptcy, and coal companies massively laying off, yet coal is on an upswing?

All of the other energy sources you mentioned were freely selected by their users. Coal has the unique distinction of being deselected and eradicated by government decree. Based on voodoo science no less. And carried out by politicians who have agendas and are not scientists and do not have (or want to gain an understanding of) a clue as to the proper application of the "scientific method".

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 4:55 pm

Western coal is easy to access & is taking most of the market, with the bitter cold these last couple of years some older coal plants got a reprieve. I think a CEO from a coal producer would tend to be a bit bias, there is one South of me in Pa. (I believe CONSOL) that caused some much surface problems it's facing huge fines for causing a dam to have to be drained & will probably have to be removed. Coal causes much of it's own problems, the days of being an energy king are long gone the niche market is growing slowly. Look at how much membership has grown here as well as those that are turning to bit. Horses didn't disappear with the coming of the horseless carriage & neither will coal. It's a natural progression!
Don't get me wrong I already have my first couple of tons ready for pick-up & as I make more room will get more but I can see the writing on the wall. We all love coal but don't expect it to ever come back to what it once was.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 6:01 pm

Samhill, do you believe that the Obama administrations agenda to snuff out coal via the EPA due specifically to its high CO2 emission rate is justified?

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 7:23 pm

Isayre, in the first place the EPA had this agenda for quite some time & had given coal fired plants all kind of time. Granted the technology was not yet there but it wasn't even considered. Not being into air quality science I only know from experience what acid rain did & how the big plants released their pollution after dark, steel mills did the same. I know for a fact that the air is a lot cleaner back home than it ever was as a child. I know the CO2 emissions have been monitored for decades so for decades they either have been lying & it's just coincidence that the air quality has gotten better since restrictions or they were stating fact, take your pick.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 7:28 pm

Samhill, do you believe that the Obama administrations agenda to snuff out coal via the EPA due specifically to its high CO2 emission rate is justified?

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Sun. Jul. 26, 2015 9:09 pm

I believe that it has a lot more to do with the EPA & Obama is the first one that perhaps didn't get enough incentives to go against them. I hauled flyash out of those power plants for several years & learned a lot of their tricks, I even once asked if it wouldn't be easier & cheaper to just go by the regulations & the boss on site said the big boys are having their fun & some day it's going to bite them in the ass. I guess that day has come for many but the CEOs just move along to other businesses to play with.

Obama just moved the entire process along, perhaps having a wee bit more info than I.

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 11:11 am

Not quite Sam. It's obummer telling his EPA. Before he was even President, he said he was going to go after the coal industry more so than anyone before him. He's even stated he will use executive orders.

http://beforeitsnews.com/global-unrest/2014/05/ob ... 59012.html

http://beforeitsnews.com/global-unrest/2014/05/ob ... 59012.html

All in the name of glo-bull warming.

He then went on to waste hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars propping up many alternative energy companies that were, or shortly there after, failed.

Paul

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 3:40 pm

Finally, Murray says that "most coal companies are cash-flow negative and many are approaching financial default. The result is that we will see the greatest restructuring of the coal industry in its history." In this regard, things haven't been all bad for Murray who, while laying of 1,400 employees has simultaneously spent at least $4.6 billion (enough to pay the annual salaries of 54,120 West Virginia coal miners, according to data from the National Mining Association) in the past two years acquiring competitors.

In any event, not everyone thinks the blame lies solely with Obama. Bo Webb (who is admittedly biased given that he's a campaign director for the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign) suggests that Murray should blame cheap and abundant natural gas and by extension, free market forces: "Murray is not dealing with reality. It's not the Obama administration or Democrats. It's capitalism. It's the free market. It's that simple."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-25/furious- ... -destroyer

Unfortunately, the CEO just provided conclusions w/o any supporting facts. hard to make anything out of the statement.

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 7:47 pm

I thought that the name sounded awfully familiar, I would not exactly call him a man that has no past or a non-bias opinion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Murray

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 8:10 pm

samhill wrote:I thought that the name sounded awfully familiar, I would not exactly call him a man that has no past or a non-bias opinion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Murray

I'd imagine that he knows a lot more about what is going on in Washington to destroy the coal industry than you do.

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 10:04 pm

I don't disagree with that Isayre, never did say I was an expert nor had access to all information but I do recall this owner/CEO being on the hot seat for the deaths of those miners & all the safety violations that he has been caught doing.

Just perhaps his motto is profit over safety, always another miner that needs work.

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Mon. Jul. 27, 2015 10:21 pm

Anything to divert from the original point of the thread. You're as predictable as the sunrise Sam.

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Tue. Jul. 28, 2015 8:09 am

Jpete, exactly how is looking up the CEO named in the OP & pointing out his past violations & run ins with the EPA thread drift? Seems to me that your trying to once again make it into a bash Sam drift if there is any at all.