Bob Murray is many things . Thelast ember baron . A huge Trump supporter . A climate denier . A big deregulating fan . And now , apparently , an applier for Union black lung benefit .
Ohio Valley ReSource , a co-op of local news media outlets in the centre of ember land , reported and confirmedthat Murray applied for the welfare managed by the Department of Labor on Wednesday . The former CEO of his own caller , Murray Energy , exploit his way up from the mines , and so it ’s perhaps no surprise he would take help to contend with contraband lung . But what is surprising is that a billionaire who has fierily play off normal designed to reduce the endangerment of ignominious lung and pay 10 of millions in safety - pertain fines would do so .
Now look , I ’m not some lusus naturae who believe people should n’t have access code to benefit . The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund — a pot of money in part funded by a tax on coal companies — is the least the governing can do to cater for worker who catch crazy while help power the U.S. But it ’s a little plenteous for someone like Bob Murray to be dipping into it .
Bob Murray giving a thumbs up in August 2007 near Huntington, Utah during rescue efforts to save six miners trapped after a collapse at the Crandall Mine he co-owned.Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)
Murraytold NPRless than a year ago that he did not , in fact , have black lung . Instead , he blamed his regular need for oxygen on another lung disease , idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis . Yet in his inglorious lung call obtained by Ohio Valley ReSource , Murray , who is 80 , enjoin he is “ near death ” due to the disease .
But beyond the about - typeface on have black lung , Murray has also done so much to fight protections from the disease . He and Murray Energy have given trillion to Republicans , harmonize toFederal Election Commission reports . That include a intimately $ 284,000 personal contribution in August 2017 to America First Action , a Trump - championship super PAC , and a $ 1 million company contribution in August 2019 to Trump Victory , a PAC for the chair ’s reelection .
Murray ’s largesse may have been one grounds why then - Energy Secretary Rick Perrymet with the coal baronin March 2017 in which he handed off an action plan to Perry . Among the token in the programme , obtainedby the New York Times , was a call for neutering the Mine Safety and Health Administration that manage conditions ember mineworker work in , including vulnerability to dust that can have black lung . Another action item was wiping out a 2014 regulation to reduce ember mine dust plan to reduce the risk of lung diseases like shameful lung , a rule that Murray Energy has previouslysued the Obama presidency over .
Murray Energy also plain $ 300,000 in 2014 to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ’s chemical group , Kentuckians for Strong Leadership . Under McConnell ’s “ strong leadership ” last class , Congress allow the tax pace on ember that supports the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund lapse from $ 1.10 per net ton . Itreverted to the 1977 rateof just $ 0.55 . With coal in decline , that means there ’s even less gross in the fund to help those who get this oeuvre - related disease that Murray now require in on . Oh , and theGovernment Accountability Office estimatesthe fund will be $ 15 billion debt by midcentury if Congress does n’t help shore it up .
In short , Murray has used his riches and position of power to labor for reducing protection and funds for the very disease he now wants protections and monetary resource to help him address with . None of this even gets into the rampant mood self-denial Murray hasfunded , theflagrant minelaying irreverence — including the collapse of a mine in Utahcaused by“reckless disregard for safety ” that killed six miners and three deliverer — and his lawsuitgoing after John Oliverfor reporting facts .
To restrict for the store , Murray ’s claim will be reviewed by the Department of Labor . If approved , his own coal party ( though he was dispatch as CEO last class after it filed for bankruptcy ) will be liable for make up his benefit . The companionship could argufy the call , something that happen on the steady for miners .
“ You often see doctor who testify for ember company raise an arguing about , perhaps the mineworker was overweight . Perhaps the mineworker has been unwrap to animal manure if he grew up on a farm , and perhaps that is stimulate his respiration trouble today — after working for 15 or 20 or 30 years in the mines , ” Sam Petsonk , a West Virginia - base lawyer who has represented former Murray miners seeking smuggled lung claims , told Ohio Valley ReSource .
It seems unbelievable that Murray Energy would dispute its founding father ’s title , but it could salvage itself some money if it did , something I ’m certain Murray the businessman would value . As Petsonk take down , “ if you ’ve black lung , you ’re dying . There ’s no two ways about it . And you may live for a while , but you ’re going to die shortly . And all I have to do is — if I ’m the lawyer on the other side — look around , wait him out and they ’ll die . And they did . And then , the claimant goes to the widow and you wait her out , too . ”
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