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America's largest private coal miner files for bankruptcy

Top Cat

Top Cat

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New York (CNN Business)The slow death of the American coal industry has forced Murray Energy, the largest private coal miner in the United States, to file for bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

Murray Energy's bankruptcy has been telegraphed for years. It recently failed to make payments to lenders, and the company entered into a forbearance agreement that bought it time to negotiate a restructuring. But that grace period came and went, and Murray Energy was unable to pay its bills. S&P Global Ratings downgraded the company's credit rating to "default" earlier this month.
The coal company formed a restructuring agreement with some of its lenders, representing about 60% of Murray's $1.7 billion in liabilities. The company announced Tuesday it has received $350 million in credit to keep its business operational through bankruptcy. ​
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[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/business/murray-energy-bankruptcy/index.html

I feel for all the miners who bought Trump's blatant lies. Unfortunately you laid down with the dog and now you have fleas.
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Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
 
Top Cat said:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/business/murray-energy-bankruptcy/index.html

I feel for all the miners who bought Trump's blatant lies. Unfortunately you laid down with the dog and now you have fleas.
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Of course we will not blame Obama for any of the companies/industries that did poorly or went out of business. That’s different because you hate Trump. Just say so, we get it.
 
Outlook said:
Of course we will not blame Obama for any of the companies/industries that did poorly or went out of business. That’s different because you hate Trump. Just say so, we get it.
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Ummm tRump boasted he'd bring coal back and the fools bought into it. Anyone with a double digit IQ could see the end of soft deep shaft eastern coal but I reckon the reports of so much drug abuse in West Virginia allowed them to be deceived.

Obama didn't end soft coal and tRump didn't bring it back.... the cherished market forces did that as frack'd NG can produce electricity far more cost effectively than centuries old methods.... :peace
 
Top Cat said:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/29/business/murray-energy-bankruptcy/index.html

I feel for all the miners who bought Trump's blatant lies. Unfortunately you laid down with the dog and now you have fleas.
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Wording of thread title threw me for a bit, I was like "wait, one person, apparently the largest ever coal miner?"

But that's not what was meant.
 
SLC said:
Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
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Ahembullcrapcough
 
Outlook said:
Of course we will not blame Obama for any of the companies/industries that did poorly or went out of business. That’s different because you hate Trump. Just say so, we get it.
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But...but...Obama

Trump made those folks promises, that was the point of the OP.

You think this is bad, look at Trumps polls in PA. Again Trump made promises to working folks in the steel industry. Guess what, those folks feel like they got snookered. Trump has a long history of screwing over working folks, just ask the subcontractors in Atlantic City he never paid.
 
SLC said:
Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
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No, the coal industry was severely damaged by fracking, which led to much, much lower natural gas prices. Coal simply became uneconomical. It died a death of irrelevancy, which is, unfortunately, a consequence of the free markets.

What Is Killing the US Coal Industry? | SIEPR
A new Department of Energy report explains why coal is dying in the US — Quartz
 
yankintx said:
But...but...Obama

Trump made those folks promises, that was the point of the OP.

You think this is bad, look at Trumps polls in PA. Again Trump made promises to working folks in the steel industry. Guess what, those folks feel like they got snookered. Trump has a long history of screwing over working folks, just ask the subcontractors in Atlantic City he never paid.
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Trump did what he promised unlike the jack asses who make promises and don’t deliver. Trump cut regulations in an attempt to save the coal industry. Because of alternative energy sources, coal is losing market share. That must be Trumps fault.
 
Coal, its your grandfather's energy source!
 
Outlook said:
Trump did what he promised unlike the jack asses who make promises and don’t deliver. Trump cut regulations in an attempt to save the coal industry. Because of alternative energy sources, coal is losing market share. That must be Trumps fault.
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Why do you believe nonsense like this? Trump promised to bring back coal jobs. He did not promise to deregulate and see if coal jobs would come back.

Trump Promised to Bring Back Coal. It’s Declining Again
 
upsideguy said:
No, the coal industry was severely damaged by fracking, which led to much, much lower natural gas prices. Coal simply became uneconomical. It died a death of irrelevancy, which is, unfortunately, a consequence of the free markets.

What Is Killing the US Coal Industry? | SIEPR
A new Department of Energy report explains why coal is dying in the US — Quartz
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I was also damaged by the Obama Administration EPA regulation that were relaxed by Trump. My brother oversaw the building of the last lignite fired plant in Texas. The plant was built during the Obama Administration and the new regs were killing them.
 
SLC said:
I was also damaged by the Obama Administration EPA regulation that were relaxed by Trump. My brother oversaw the building of the last lignite fired plant in Texas. The plant was built during the Obama Administration and the new regs were killing them.
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Ah, blame it on Obama.

News flash....coal....not that good of an energy source lately....or any more.
 
SLC said:
Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
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BS! Trump has no idea how free market economies actually work. He was trying to revive a dead horse because he doesn't know any better and refuses to listen to those that do know better.
 
SLC said:
I was also damaged by the Obama Administration EPA regulation that were relaxed by Trump. My brother oversaw the building of the last lignite fired plant in Texas. The plant was built during the Obama Administration and the new regs were killing them.
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Nice anecdote, but the articles I said specially said it was other factors and denied (ridiculed as a right wing talking point) the idea that Obama killed the oil industry. I am not arguing that his policies helped, but they were not a reason for the industry failure. Its time had simply come. There may be a day when coal once again makes sense... maybe "in the year 2525, if man is still alive", but not likely.

Atomic Kid said:
BS! Trump has no idea how free market economies actually work. He was trying to revive a dead horse because he doesn't know any better and refuses to listen to those that do know better.
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True, but he does know his audience..... and he appeals to their pain by telling them what they want to hear.

Coal isn't coming back nor are manufacturing jobs, most of which were lost to automation and robots, not China...and, since his base tended to be less educated AND in pain, they bought is lies. They are still buying his lies.

Trump promised economic growth better than Obama'''s. It didn'''t happen
 
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Atomic Kid said:
BS! Trump has no idea how free market economies actually work. He was trying to revive a dead horse because he doesn't know any better and refuses to listen to those that do know better.
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I suspect Trump knew he was lying. I suspect he also knows that his base is largely a gullible lot, that will believe anything he tells them.
 
Outlook said:
Trump did what he promised unlike the jack asses who make promises and don’t deliver. Trump cut regulations in an attempt to save the coal industry. Because of alternative energy sources, coal is losing market share. That must be Trumps fault.
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Please, cite were Trump brought steel jobs to PA, or even coal jobs. If your so confident those cites should be easy to locate.
 
upsideguy said:
Nice anecdote, but the articles I said specially said it was other factors and denied (ridiculed as a right wing talking point) the idea that Obama killed the oil industry. I am not arguing that his policies helped, but they were not a reason for the industry failure. Its time had simply come. There may be a day when coal once again makes sense... maybe "in the year 2525, if man is still alive", but not likely. .........
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the Combine Cycle Gas Turbine and fracking have definitely hurt coal. But lignite plants mine the lignite on the lignite coal fired plant site and fuel price is very low as a result. The Obama era regulations increased the operating costs for all coal plants including lignite plants making them less competitive with gas.
 
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yankintx said:
Please, cite were Trump brought steel jobs to PA, or even coal jobs. If your so confident those cites should be easy to locate.
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Why don't you find cites that refute him that should be just as easy.
 
SLC said:
Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
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Regulation isn't the problem. It's that natural gas is both cheaper, easier to extract, and better for the environment.

What could have helped coal miners? Grants to research and build efficient coal-to-liquid refinement processes would be a better long-term solution for dealing with reduced domestic demand for the commodity.
 
The Mark said:
Wording of thread title threw me for a bit, I was like "wait, one person, apparently the largest ever coal miner?"
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Why yes, it's Paul Bunyan's cousin Jack Shaftlin :mrgreen:
 
SLC said:
Trump did his part removing excessive regulations created by the Obama administration. There is no doubt that the coal industry was severely damaged by the Obama administration sometimes it takes a few years for a company to go bust.
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There is plenty of doubt.

A normal candidate would have told the miners the truth -- they're jobs are going away due to automation of coal production and competition from gas and renewable energy, both of which have fallen in cost. Trump was not so constrained, so he told miners what they wanted to hear -- 'I'll bring back your high paying coal jobs.' 'It's regulation that's killing coal. Climate change is a hoax, etc, etc, etc.'

Now, three years after Trump let mining companies dump mercury into local streams the companies are still going bankrupt. Psst, it wasn't the regs.

The free market has been killing coal for years.
 
Kushinator said:
Regulation isn't the problem. It's that natural gas is both cheaper, easier to extract, and better for the environment.

What could have helped coal miners? Grants to research and build efficient coal-to-liquid refinement processes would be a better long-term solution for dealing with reduced domestic demand for the commodity.
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Isn't that what Hillary said? The miners then went off and voted for Trump, who didn't do anything meaningful for them. But he did try to take away their Obamacare.
 
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