Coal executive praises favorable court ruling; calls it a job saver

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A northern Appalachia coal producer and mine operator with facilities in Ohio, Marshall, Marion, Harrison, and Monongalia Counties is celebrating a court ruling he said will save jobs.

“It shuts down much of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s destruction of America’s and West Virginia coal industry,” Robert Murray, President and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, told Hoppy Kercheval on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline.

Judge John Preston Bailey, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must meet requirements of the 1971 Clean Air Act.

Murray filed suit accusing the agency of ignoring Section 321 (a) of the act.

“So I sued them years ago years ago. They have resisted and resisted and we won the victory yesterday,” Murray announced.

“You must tell us how many coal miners’ jobs and lives and family livelihoods are destroyed. You must tell us how many people in the stores, in the schools, in the county and state jobs, how many of those jobs are going to go when you destroy the coal industry jobs.”

Bailey’s order gives the EPA 14 days to come up with a plan and implementation schedule that would determine the potential job losses caused by agency regulations.

According to Murray, government leaders have disregarded federal regulations.

“What we’ve had here is a run amuck, runaway executive branch of the federal government for the last 8 years who have paid no attention to what the intent of Congress was in the 1971 Clean Air Act.”

Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-WV) released a statement following the district court ruling.

“By forcing the EPA to account for jobs lost, we will lift the curtain on the fact that the EPA’s anti-coal regulations are killing our jobs,” wrote Jenkins. “West Virginians deserve the truth and transparency from the EPA, not more ideologically motivated regulations that are putting our men and women out of work.”

In the last year, Murray Energy has idled operations, laid off miners and re-established jobs blaming the employment volatility on the Obama administration and increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity.

In February, a 5 to 4 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court halted the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan which has been viciously criticized by Murray and other coal industry leaders.

New emissions limits proposed by the Clean Power Plan were designed to reduce carbon emissions from existing coal fired power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels before 2030.