Benefits worker
category belated 1020
WIKI MURRAY COAL
August 2015
According todocuments obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), and first reported on by Bloombergin August 2016, a Murray energy attorney and the head of the coal advocacy group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) spoke on a panel titled “The Dangerous Consequences of the Clean Power Plan & Other EPA Rules” during the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) August 2015 Summit.105 ^106 ^107
“Murray Energy Corp. made a $250,000 donation to the Republican Attorneys General Association last year and, in return, the coal mining company’s chief executive got a closed-door meeting with state prosecutors to discuss the Obama administration’s regulation of power plants,” Bloomberg reported, adding that “Eleven days later, the attorneys general went to federal court to fight the rules that Murray Energy says could put the coal industry out of business.”108
~CPP
CMD reported that the panel presentation featured Mike Duncan, president of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) and Geoffrey Barnes, counsel at Murray Energy, as well as three attorneys general: Scott Pruitt (R-OK), Patrick Morrisey (R-WV), and Ken Paxton (R-TX).109
April 2014
After cutting off promised health benefits for one thousand retired coal miners, Murray blamed the Obama administration and its so-called “war on coal”:110
“Murray Energy’s inability to provide these benefits is, in part, due to the destruction of the coal industry, including our markets, by the Obama Administration and its appointees and supporters, who have eliminated the livelihoods of thousands of coal miners, and their families, by the forced closing of 392 coal-fired electric power plants in America, now and in the immediate future,” Murray said in a statement confirming the cuts. “Due to these action and devastated coal markets, Murray Energy is unable to support these benefits.”111
Affected workers included all non-union retirees at five West Virginia mines that Murray had recently purchased from CONSOL Energy Inc.112
April 23, 2014
Murray Energy sued the the Labor Departmentover the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) new rule limiting coal dust, intended to protect coal miners against black lung disease, The Hillreported.113
“Instead of protecting miners’ health, this rule clearly seeks to destroy the coal industry, and the thousands of jobs that it provides, with absolutely no benefit to the health or safety of miners, whatsoever,” the company said in a statement.114