Energy Dept. planning a coal industry bailout at Murray Energy CEO's request

A memo indicating that the Energy Department is considering the much talked-about bailout of coal and nuclear companies has recently surfaced. The argument for this government action? That bankrupt coal companies are “secure” while the ones that might replace them would be less secure. The plan being discussed is to utilize a cold-war-era law called the Defense Production Act, a law President Truman used to help the United States steel industry.

The bottom line here is that coal companies can't compete with cheaper natural gas. Rather than let market forces play out, allowing markets to choose the cheaper alternative, which they are already clearly doing, the government will intervene to force grid operators to buy what they don't want to buy from a select few companies on the Energy Department's list.

Bloomberg reported today that “The issue is a priority for some of the president’s top supporters, including coal moguls Robert E. Murray and Joseph Craft of Alliance Resource Partners, who donated a million dollars to the president’s inauguration... A coalition of natural gas and renewable power advocates told Perry that 'power plant retirements are a normal, healthy feature of electricity markets,' and therefore there is no emergency that would justify Energy Department action.” I completely agree and would point out that the main function of government agencies like the Energy Department is to prevent typical market forces like creative destruction from occurring to well-connected corporations.

Two months ago I posted on this issue with the FirstEnergy venn (below). Today I'm adding a venn for Murray (above). Murray Energy is a coal mining operation based in St. Clairsville, Ohio and run by Robert E. Murray, described as a “mogul” by the Bloomberg writers above. Only one of its mines, the Powhatan No. 6, is unionized. Murray sent a letter to President Trump last year demanding a bailout, explaining that without one, his company and FirstEnergy would go bankrupt. He also wrote a letter to Vice President Pence last year outlining his plan for energy policy changes.

The Murray Energy PAC has donated $150,000 over the last 13 years, mostly to Republian candidates. Through this PAC Robert Murray is able to lobby government without having to register as a lobbyist. According to Wikipedia, “In October 2012, the non-profit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Murray and his company alleging violations of federal campaign law in which employees of Murray Energy were supposedly required to give one percent of their salary to the company's political action committee.”

Murray, himself, has held no covered positions, but is a Trump donor and was invited by Trump to attend the signing of his rollback of Obama's climate regulations. Trump has tweeted several times that he intends to prop up the coal industry and bring coal jobs back.