Robert Murray has taken his fight for the survival of the U.S. coal industry — an industry that he believes will have room for only one other company besides his — to court.
“We’re under attack for total elimination of the use of coal, the mining of coal, coal mining jobs” and those that depend on them, Murray said in an interview last week. “It’s no question that the regulatory rampage of the Obama administration has accelerated and that has resulted in more litigation against the government.”
Murray Energy, the nation’s largest privately held underground mining company, is leading the charge in eight lawsuits against various federal agencies.
It is also a frequent plaintiff against another group that Murray says can threaten his ability to run a coal company — the media.
“My reputation has to be beyond reproach and it is. And when someone lies or even colors their media reports, we will absolutely sue them,” he said.
Since 2001, Murray has filed at least nine lawsuits against reporters, editorial writers, a cartoonist, media organizations and radio stations that carried a paid advertisement from an activist group that was critical of Murray, claiming each time that their actions malign his reputation, threaten the jobs of his employees, and hamper his ability to get financing and negotiate with regulators.
None of these cases has made it to trial, although two are still pending. Some have settled and some have been dismissed by the court.
In several instances, Murray Energy has been able to extract printed apologies, most often in the vein of “sorry if you took it the wrong way” or “sorry if Murray’s feelings were hurt” without retracting the accused stories.
Murray is happy with his success rate. “We win more than we lose,” he said. Other companies might let unsympathetic coverage slide, but Murray isn’t taking any chances.
“I think they ignore it, and we want to survive,” he said.
‘It’s a hoax’
Murray says he’s been hurt by the “war on coal” but Murray Energy is also, by his account, one of the only coal companies in the country that’s doing well.
In 2013, Ohio-based Murray Energy more than doubled its workforce when it bought five mines from Consol Energy Inc. for $3.5 billion. Earlier this year, the company bought a large stake in Foresight Reserves LP, a company that mines for coal in the Illinois Basin, for $1.37 billion. In August, it acquired some Colombian mines.
Murray doesn’t see it as a contradiction. He says he could be doing better.
For example, in May, he had 8,400 employees. Today, he has 6,100. In several press releases, he blamed the layoffs on competition from natural gas and “the ongoing destruction of the United States coal industry by President Barack Obama.”
Murray says he’s fighting against corruption: The Obama administration doesn’t believe that its proposed regulations will help climate change or the environment, he said, nor is that even its goal.
“It has nothing to do with the environment. It’s a hoax,” he said. “It’s to pay back those who got him elected — radical environmental organizations, liberal elitists who have the money and don’t know what to do with it. Some unionists.”
While other coal companies let states or trade organizations take the lead in expensive, prolonged legal battles against new regulations, Murray Energy has greeted new government rules with press releases announcing lawsuits with him as the lead plaintiff.
When the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft of its Clean Power Plan this summer, Murray Energy was the first to act. Sixteen states attached their names to the company’s lawsuit, which the court declined to take up because the rule wasn’t yet final — it still hasn’t been published in the Federal Register.
When an Ohio Court of Appeals issued a stay for an EPA rule that seeks to extend federal authority to more small streams and wetlands, Murray Energy immediately issued a press release claiming credit for the result and highlighting that it was the first to file this lawsuit.
The cost burden is substantial, Murray acknowledged, but according to company statements, the legal strategy is paying off.
