One of the biggest U.S. coal companies donated $100,000 to a super PAC dedicated to electing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump the day before warning of mass layoffs at the company.
Murray Energy, which is reportedly fighting off bankruptcy, issued 4,400 layoff notices in six states on June 29 in anticipation of workforce reductions in September. On June 28, the PAC associated with the company made a $100,000 donation to the Trump Victory fund, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. Company CEO Bob Murray held a fundraiser for Trump the same day in Wheeling, W.Va.
The donation is among the $225,966 that Murray Energy PAC has donated in the 2016 election cycle, which comes as the coal business deteriorates.
When asked if the contribution was a wise use of resources by the company given the current state of the coal business, Murray Energy declined to comment. However, Murray has endorsed Trump and continues to back him, the company said.
“Mr. Murray fully supports Mr. Trump for president over Hillary Clinton, who has said that, if elected president, she is ‘gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies outta business,'” the company said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Mr. Murray believes that Mr. Trump is totally committed to the survival of the United States coal industry and to the jobs, livelihoods and families in it.”
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has said that she wants to retrain coal workers and move them into other fields, but many in Appalachia see her potential presidency as a continuation of Obama’s “war on coal.” She was booed by crowds in West Virginia, a major coal state that she lost handily, and can expect to lose many working-class votes in coal country to Trump.
The two biggest coal companies in the country, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy, already have declared bankruptcy this year, and Murray seems to be on the precipice of doing the same.
The twin blows of increased natural gas production, which is a cheaper and cleaner burning fossil fuel, and regulation from President Obama’s administration have hit coal mining.
The company blames its reduced budget for political advocacy on these two factors. According to OpenSecrets.org, the company has spent $125,000 on lobbying in 2016, down from a peak of more than $1 million in 2011.
“Murray Energy Corporation has been forced to substantially reduce its lobbying spending, as well as all of our other expenditures, due to the total destruction of the United States coal industry as caused by the Obama administration and by the increased utilization of natural gas to generate electricity,” the company said.
“Indeed, the Obama administration is waging a regulatory rampage against the United States coal industry whereby they are issuing regulations faster than we can read them.”
