Pay to play (the state attorney general version)
And guess which local coal company and which state's AG are among the players?
Bloomberg is out this morning with an excellent in-depth analysis:
Battered Coal Companies Courted State AGs to Fight Climate Rules
The article begins:
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 . . .
Intelligencer front-page story: "Murray Demands Tax Reduction"
Article, however, does not report whether he also stomped his feet and threatened to hold his breath until the severance tax was reduced
This morning's Intelligencer reports:
Murray Energy CEO Robert E. Murray said paying $7.6 million in West Virginia severance taxes on New Year's Eve forced him to lay off 674 coal miners, so he's urging lawmakers to slash rates by more than half to "save what is left of its coal industry and jobs."
The . . .
Posted in: robert murraymurray coalcoal
Coal news
Patriot Coal's Bankruptcy
Propublica and a number of other sources are covering the Patriot Coal bankruptcy and what it is doing to the coal-mining retirees who were promised continued health benefits:
When the plan was filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Richmond last week, however, one group didn’t come out so well: 208 retired miners, . . .
Posted in: wheeling newspaperspatriot coalmurray coal
Murray safety violations
Suing and blaming the victims
The headline for the front-page story in the morning Intelligencer tells us that:
Murray, Union Engage In Safety Report Dispute
The company is suing the United Mine Workers for "breaching wage agreements and filing false complaints." According to a Murray official:
For nearly two years, the UMWA has orchestrated an . . .
Posted in: murray coalumwwheeling intelligencer
Which side are you on, Intelligencer?
The morning "newspaper" lectures the UMW
The lead Intelligencer editorial, "Planning Future for Miners," takes the United Mine Workers to task for having endorsed Obama in 2008. Apparently the president is to blame for all the jobs that have been lost in the coal industry. No, it isn't the increased mechanization that began decades ago or the rising cost of getting the . . .
Coal moments from around the Web
Protest songs are dangerous (and threatening to coal companies)
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Peabody Energy Corp. wants a judge to strike lyrics of a strip-mining protest song from a federal lawsuit filed by environmental activists who claim they were jailed for demonstrating at a company shareholders meeting. . . .
Peabody has asked a . . .
Morrisey watch 7
Surprise, surprise -- the Senior Vice-President of the West Virginia Coal Association praises Morrisey
Chris Hamilton, who is "Senior Vice President of the West Virginia Coal Association; chairman of the WV Business & Industry Council and member of the West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health & Safety and West Virginia Diesel Commission,"has written an op-ed piece featured in the Logan Banner and the Charleston Daily Mail that . . .
Posted in: morriseycoal warsmurray coal