Murray says coal industry in tough shape
Murray Energy owner Bob Murray speaks during the annual Coalbed Methane Conference on Thursday about the difficulties the coal industry has to face in this economy.
Murray Energy founder and CEO Robert Murray speaks during the annual Coalbed Methane Forum Thursday about the difficulties the coal industry has to face in this economy.
Robert Murray was in Southpointe Thursday, lamenting the state of the coal mining industry, lambasting the Obama administration’s energy initiatives and casting doubts on global warming.
He was the keynote speaker on the second and final day of the annual North American Coalbed Methane Forum, and sounded a number of key notes at the Hilton Garden Inn, emotionally pleading his case for coal.
Oh, and the founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corp. hinted at layoffs at some of his mines – which were announced Friday.
“If I had to describe the coal industry today, I would call it ‘extremely dangerous.’ That’s not from a safety standpoint, but survival,” Murray said at the forum.
His company, based in St. Clairsville, Ohio, has 13 active mines in five states: West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Utah. Murray said he had about 8,600 employees a month ago, but had to make cuts to around 7,500.
More were coming. Hours after Murray spoke in Cecil Township – the company said it plans to eliminate 1,417 jobs at five West Virginia mines. Another 249 jobs would be lost at two Ohio mines, while 162 employees would be out of work at two Illinois mines. reported on its website the company planned to announce 1,800 cuts at nine locations, mostly in West Virginia and Ohio, and they could occur as early as Friday.
The source, according to the Journal, said Murray made the decision to do so Wednesday following a lengthy meeting with operations managers.
Despite being inexpensive and almost inexhaustable, coal is mired in woe. It isn’t as clean as other energy sources and is blamed for contributing to global warming. Its prices have dropped about 15 percent over the year; natural gas is plentiful and cheap, thanks to widespread shale drilling; and new environmental rules have caused a number of utilities to break away from coal as a power source. Coal-fired power plants also have been disappearing, and likely will continue to do so.
“I’m running out of places to put coal because there are so few places to burn it,” Murray said.
He was in the coal industry for 58 of his 75 years, starting as a miner while in high school. Murray said that job helped pay for his education at Ohio State University, where he received an engineering degree in mining. After a quarter-century in the industry, mostly as an executive, he started Murray Energy in 1988.
The company emerged as one of the largest independent coal operators in the nation. But the man who founded it is deeply concerned, and anticipates restructuring and bankruptcies. Restructuring would imperil union jobs, bankruptcy many jobs.
“We will see a major bankruptcy within a month,” Murray said to an audience of about 80 at the Garden Inn. “We could have the greatest restructuring of the coal industry the nation has ever seen, and it may happen by year’s end. Every major company is going to be broken up, sold or in bankruptcy except two – and I hope I am one of them.”
He fired a number of brickbats at President Barack Obama for his energy policies. Obama was criticized in some quarters as waging a “War on Coal.”
“Before Mr. Obama came in, 52 percent of our electricity was coal-powered. Now it’s 37 percent,” said Murray, whose company filed four lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency and its Clean Power Plan during Obama’s six-plus years in office.
He acknowledged natural gas is a popular energy source, along with solar and wind energy. But, he added, “we have all this gas and nowhere to put it” and that the two renewables “make up only 1 percent (of the energy grid), can’t grow and are not reliable.”
So he pushes coal.
He dismissed global warming. “It’s not happening. It’s a political grab of America’s power grid.”
Murray said if all of the nation’s coal-fired power plants were shuttered, the world’s temperature would change by only two one-hundredths of a percentage point.
“You have to have low-cost electricity in the world. This is global goofiness.”
He closed by saying he’s not conceding.
“I’m not giving up … and you shouldn’t either.”