Murray Energy CEO and Documented Piece of Shit, Bob Murray, has spent most of the last decade railing against environmental regulations and decrying the demise of his beloved coal industry, but Murray is using environmental regulations against the natural gas industry.
Pro Publica reports that Bob Murray is funding a legal campaign against the natural gas industry through an astroturf group that is ostensibly in favor of creating jobs.
The so-called Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance (OVJA), which is receiving funds from Murray, has tied up natural gas power projects in court in West Virginia for several years now by citing environmental regulations.
In pursuing their cases, the lawyers paid, at least in part, by Murray Energy have relied on the same kinds of government regulations that Robert Murray has railed against. In the Moundsville plant case, those lawyers challenged a permit partly because it allowed an increase in carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. Murray has said global warming is a “hoax.”
Construction has not begun on any of the three projects, at least partly, because of litigation-related delays, developers say.
Records reviewed by Pro Publica show that the Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance was created on the same day Murray himself fired hundreds of workers.
When the OVJA filed its application for nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service, it said the alliance “is a grassroots organization and movement whose mission is to promote and protect the good-paying jobs in the Ohio Valley region." [...]
But on May 22, 2015, the same day IRS records show that the OVJA officially formed, Murray Energy did what a lot of coal companies were doing at the time. The company announced plans for anticipated layoffs of hundreds of miners.
In a news release four days later, announcing the alliance’s formation, Bruce Whipkey, listed as president of the group, cited Murray Energy’s layoff announcement as a reason local residents needed to focus on protecting jobs.
As Pro Publica points out in their report, actual environmentalist groups have not made any attempts to directly block the natural gas power plants that Bob Murray's secret lawyers are trying to block.
It's not earth-shattering news that these people are unparalleled hypocrites, but this is a pretty clear illustration of how conservatives view government power. They have no qualms about using government power and red tape or regulations against their enemies and to further their own interests.
They don't want to be regulated, but they will use regulation to suppress competition and kill the Free Market.
Why do Republicans hate the Free Market?