Robert Murray is the CEO of Murray Energy, America’s largest privately owned coal-mining company. He has met privately with #FakePresident Donald Trump on several occasions to advise him on how to put coal miners back to work. He is one of the people who helped craft the message from serial prevaricator and all-around despicable human being Mitch McConnell and others in Washington that “clean coal” was the magic bullet that would reinvigorate the coal mining industry.
Based in part on the sweet nothings Murray was whispering in his ear, The Trumpster made “clean coal” a big part of his campaign message. His claims bamboozled unemployed miners with promises they would soon be back to work, once the evil Obama was evicted from the White House. The problem is, it was all a bold faced lie designed to pander to the most vulnerable workers in America.
Murray was in Washington recently to attend a meeting of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Scott Pruitt, the alleged administrator of the EPA, was present to tell the group about his plan to counterattack climate scientists by hiring a bunch of charlatans supported by the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel interests to say whatever they are paid to say, no matter the consequences.
How odd, then, that at a conference on clean coal, Murray told the press, “Carbon capture and sequestration does not work. It’s a pseudonym for ‘no coal.’ It is neither practical nor economic, carbon capture and sequestration. It is just cover for the politicians, both Republicans and Democrats that say, ‘Look what I did for coal,’ knowing all the time that it doesn’t help coal at all.” Talk about throwing the boss under the bus!
As if to underline the truth of his pronouncements, Southern Company announced shortly thereafter that it will stop throwing away billions of dollars a year on a carbon capture venture in Kemper County, Mississippi. It will not, however, refund the money that local utility customers had to pay to support the short sighted plan. Utility companies get their mistakes paid for by their customers.
In an article earlier this year about Murray and Elon Musk tangling on Twitter about climate change and coal emissions, Murray took time out of his busy day advising presidents and senators to send me an email saying he drives a lowly Ford Ranger, as if somehow that excuses him from raping and pillaging the land in search of a buck.
Oddly enough, he claims that climate change is just a money making scheme for people promoting solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects. Somehow, Murray and his ilk do not see the hypocrisy of complaining about renewable energy companies being profitable when they have fattened their own wallets for generations by pumping tons of pollutants into the environment.
Source: E & E News
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