#robert murray

The coal industry has been failing for decades--steadily since 1985--as demand for fossil fuels weakens. Natural gas and renewable energy sources are both better for the environment and far cheaper. Nevertheless, Candidate Trump promised to bring back coal mining jobs. He lied, of course, but that’s nothing new. You can’t say he didn’t try, though:

He disemboweled environmental protections, including:

Getting rid of the Clean Power Plan.

Getting rid of the Clean Water Act.

Pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Even rolling back provisions of the Endangered Species Act that were interfering with coal mining.

He killed mining safety regulations, resulting in a 100% increase in mining fatalities.

He ordered power grids to purchase electricity from failing coal plants at any price necessary to keep them from shutting down.

When the EPA reported that its replacement for the Clean Power Plan, the so-called “Affordable Clean Energy Rule,” would cause hundreds of premature deaths, he not only ignored it but also had his EPA ban scientific research so it couldn’t happen again.

One company that hoped to benefit from Trump’s approach was Murray Energy Holdings Co., the largest privately owned coal company in the United States. Its founder, coal baron Robert E. Murray, hated President Obama and his clean-air rules with a passion, calling Obama “the greatest enemy I’ve ever had in my life.” Murray pushed Trump to help save his industry, and in return provided strong financial support, including most recently a $1 million donation to a political action committee backing Trump’s agenda in the 2018 election.

Robert Murray

While “scientists set 2030 deadline to stop climate disaster“, Republicans continue to do the bidding 💰 💰 💰 of the Fossil Fuels lobby and industry. And they won’t be satisfied until every last drop is burned. #RepublicanSwamp #FossilFuelLobby

“The E.P.A.’s bedrock mission is to protect public health and welfare. Its basic tools are 50 years of federal clean air and water laws meant to limit Americans’ exposure to environmental poisons and pollutants.”

Every so often an administration comes along that seems to forget this mission. We have one now. Andrew Wheeler, the agency’s acting administrator, is clearly a great improvement in moral terms over his ethically challenged and thankfully departed predecessor, Scott Pruitt.

Wheeler’s ideology and policies, however, are much the same, weighted in favor of the industries 

Wheeler once represented as a handsomely paid lobbyist, and against the health needs of Americans.

Like the president he serves, Mr. Wheeler displays little concern for climate change and its epochal challenges. 

The latest example is a proposal his agency sent to the White House for review and approval that would, in broadest terms, greatly devalue the public health benefits of reducing air pollution. The proposal is specifically aimed at a 2011 finding by the Obama administration that when the agency devises rules to control a particular pollutant — mercury, in this case — it must take into account not only the compliance costs to industry but the additional health benefits that arise from the reduction in other harmful gases like soot and smog that occur as a side effect.

The Wheeler proposal would disallow any calculation of these side benefits and allow only those associated with the regulated pollutant. 

“So chalk up another win for Robert Murray, the far-right Trump confidante and chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation”

a big coal producer for which Mr. Wheeler served as an attorney and lobbyist. Mr. Murray requested the mercury rollback as one of 16 items on a wish list he presented last year to the Trump administration. He is one of several coal barons who lobbied the administration to revisit the cost-benefit rules to set a precedent for future regulations.

“Near the top of Mr. Murray’s to-do list, higher even than mercury, was the repeal and replacement of the Clean Power Plan, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight global warming.”

Republicans, why is the government handing out $21 BILLION in Fossil Fuel Subsidies each year?

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

This week: two baroque operas in concert, one fairly well known, the other quite obscure.

I had to look up the name of Charles-Hubert Gervais, a composer of the French baroque period. His opera Hypermnestre is receiving its first performance since the eighteenth century (according to the Müpa website) in Budapest this week, with Katherine Watson in the title role. Tuesday, September 18; video livestream on the Müpa website.