Murray Energy, Largest U.S. Privately-Owned Coal Firm, Announced Bankruptcy This Week

Nov. 2, 2019 (EIRNS)—On Oct. 29, Ohio-headquartered Murray Energy filed for Chapter 11 Federal bankruptcy. The largest privately-owned coal mining firm in the U.S., the company has some 7,000 employees across 17 active coal mines, mostly in Ohio and West Virginia. Since then, Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers Association, is speaking out with concern that the bankruptcy court uphold miners’ pension and other claims.

Robert Murray, the firm’s owner, has spoken out strongly against the onslaught against coal, and backed President Donald Trump in opposing it. So far this year, seven coal companies have filed for bankruptcy protection; and dozens of coal-fired generating plants have closed in recent years.

Coal-produced electricity in the U.S. was, for the first time ever, exceeded by so-called “renewable” (wind, solar) energy sources as of April this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

This is part of the same picture of taking down the U.S. energy platform, as in the situation in California, where electricity production and distribution is inadequate, and also needlessly associated with fire danger.