Coal CEO Robert Murray on Monday defended his industry against cleaner technologies that he accused of taking government subsidies without turning a profit, while bashing the policies of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The head of the Ohio-based Murray Energy went on CNBC to go after Clinton by accusing electric carmaker Tesla of building cleaner technologies at taxpayer expense.
“Tesla is a fraud,” said Murray, who has been a loyal supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump. Tesla has “gotten $2 billion from the taxpayer, [and] has not made a penny yet in cash flow,” he said.
The remarks got a near immediate response from Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of Tesla, who told Murray he would stop using government subsidies if the coal industry did the same.
The “real fraud” in energy “is denial of climate science,” Musk replied on Twitter. “As for ‘subsidies,’ Tesla gets pennies on dollar vs coal. How about we both go to zero?”
Murray did not respond to the challenge immediately.
The coal CEO also sought to downplay Clinton’s climate agenda by saying even if every coal plant were closed in the U.S., “it would not affect the temperature of the Earth at all.”
His comments follow those made by Trump at Sunday night’s presidential debate in St. Louis, where the nominee said President Obama’s policies are “destroying” the energy industry.
Trump said Clinton would put thousands of coal miners out of work.
Murray told CNBC that Clinton supports companies such as Tesla that need government help to compete.
“She was talking about Elon Musk, [billionaire] Warren Buffett … . That’s who she was talking about in supporting her friends,” Murray said. “It has nothing to do with the environment.”
