Murray Energy Corp. founder and CEO Robert Murray is "righteously angry" over the Obama administration and coal opponents, who he says are "intent on destroying coal and our country for their bizarre personal and political ends."

"What is behind this destruction of our jobs and livelihood? It is a political power grab of America's power grid," Murray said in prepared remarks addressed to the Ohio County, W.Va., Republican Party. "It is being done to radically transform American society. How better to do it than to get control of the availability, reliability and cost of electricity, a staple of life."

Murray helms the largest underground coal mining company in the U.S. While producers with a lot of debt on their balance sheets have struggled mightily in the current market, Murray has expanded. He acquired CONSOL Energy Inc.'s highly productive longwall mines in West Virginia in a deal announced in late 2013 and recently took on a major stake in Foresight Energy LP.

He said President Barack Obama's administration has issued regulations that illegally bypass the states and their utility commissions, the U.S. Congress and the Constitution in favor of putting the U.S. EPA in charge of the nation's electric grid. Murray, speaking at a Republican gathering at the July 22 Lincoln Day Dinner, touted his company's four lawsuits being brought against the administration's Clean Power Plan, an effort to rein in carbon dioxide emissions.

"Mr. Obama's actions are a human issue to me, as I know the names of many of the Americans whose jobs and family livelihoods are being destroyed as he appeases his radical environmentalist, liberal elitist, Hollywood character, some unionist, and other contributors," Murray said. "These Americans, you see, are my employees and their fellow workers."

Murray continued, saying that the coal workers affected by Obama's policies are among the highest paid in the regions where they live, but also have no one to sell their homes to when they lose their jobs.

"Thus, these people are prohibited from working and fall to the negative side of the economic ledger for the rest of their lives," Murray said. "This is not the America that I have always cherished. Well, I am obviously not giving up. Nor should you. We have the law, science, economics, cold hard energy facts and the Constitution on our side. Our cause is right. It is right for the coal industry and our communities and America. … We must continue to do whatever we can to overcome the insanity of our current government."

He noted that most coal companies are cash-flow negative and many are approaching financial default. The result, he adds, is that "we will see the greatest restructuring of the coal industry in its history."

Bo Webb, a campaign director for the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Campaign, is an activist who has fought the coal industry, particularly on mountaintop removal coal mining. He told SNL Energy that if Murray wants to fight for coal jobs, he should be pointing his finger at the natural gas industry, not the Obama administration. As an example, Webb noted that despite stacks of health studies linking mountaintop removal to various poor health outcomes for those who live near those operations, little action has been taken against the coal industry.

That less coal is being mined, Webb said, is purely a function of the market. Regarding Murray, Webb said the CEO is "not dealing with reality, that's for certain."

"It's not the Obama administration or Democrats," Webb said. "It's capitalism. It's the free market. It's that simple."

The current state of coal markets is "extremely dangerous," Murray said, and the worst he has seen in 58 years. A big part of the loss in coal's share of electrical generation has been the increasing utilization of natural gas for power. In addition to low prices due to a supply glut from new natural gas shale plays, regulations increasingly favor gas over coal. Murray said EPA regulations "alone total 25 million words, 38 times more than those in the holy Bible."

Because of what he calls a "regulatory rampage" from the administration, Murray says coal companies are finding it nearly impossible to sustain prior levels of coal employment. Murray Energy, the executive said, employs about 7,000 employees, down from about 8,400 people on May 1.

The employment reductions were announced in a series of layoff announcements across the company's assorted operations. An SNL Energy analysis of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data shows Murray's mines have reduced output in the second quarter by nearly 25% compared to the prior quarter.

More Republicans

The CEO's plan to fix the problems he says fall on the shoulders of the Obama administration is to elect more Republicans. Calling Abraham Lincoln, the namesake of the event where he was speaking, the best president in U.S. history, Murray said Obama was "by far, the worst."

"His legacy will be that of the nation's greatest destroyer, and he certainly is the greatest enemy that I, personally, and my family and employees, have ever had," Murray said. "He is also, in my judgement, the greatest enemy that our Ohio Valley has ever had. And, I do not know of a Democrat who does not support him, nor do I know of a Republican who does."

In 2014, West Virginia's House and Senate both flipped to a Republican majority after decades of Democrats holding control of both chambers. Murray said the Democrat-led state Legislature provided "huge opposition," and he specifically called out some Democrats, including former Senate President Jeff Kessler, former House Speaker Timothy Miley and State Sen. Michael Romano, who was elected to represent Harrison County in 2014.

Webb dismissed the notion that Democrats in West Virginia were impeding coal-friendly legislation. He said it took four years of heavy activism in the state just to get the governor and the state Department of Environmental Protection to acknowledge that health studies on mountaintop removal coal mining existed.

"The Democrats haven't been friendly to environmentalists. … The Democrats in West Virginia have been very friendly to the coal industry and Republicans are also, because the local government, state government, is compromised by the industry — they're influenced by it," Webb said.

Murray said with Democrats out of the way in West Virginia, the Legislature was able to proceed with needed coal mining, tort law and other legislation. However, he said there is unfinished business in the form of changes to lower the coal industry's tax burden in the state.

"Currently, the coal industry accounts for 7% of the gross business product of the state, but our industry pays 60% of the business taxes in West Virginia," Murray said. "Oil and gas producers are not taxed to this extent. Relief must be given to the coal industry as our coal cannot compete with that from other states, all of which have lower coal severance taxes, or none at all."

Webb said he worries that Republicans in the state Legislature will allow for such concessions to the coal industry. He specifically is concerned that regulatory pressures on the industry will be relaxed to accommodate the industry and aid it in competing with natural gas.

In a February interview, Del. Randy Smith, R-Preston, a coal miner, said the new Republican majority was looking for some tax relief for the industry, including the repeal of an added 56-cent ton tax per ton of coal to pay up the state's workers' compensation deficit. A wholesale repeal of the severance tax, he said, was unlikely given the state's budget position.

Murray urged support of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who has been actively involved in suing the Obama administration.

He also called for support of Senate President Bill Cole in his bid for governor. Cole is running against Jim Justice, recently identified by Forbes as the richest person in West Virginia, and other candidates, including Kessler. Despite Justice's earning much of his fortune from coal assets, Murray said that when he received a call asking him to support Justice, he said he would actually oppose him.

"This somewhat startled the politician asking for my support, but I explained that Mr. Justice does not contribute to or participate in any of the four major coal associations in America and West Virginia, and that I was aware of about 20 lawsuits against him for not paying his bills, a bad image for the coal industry," Murray said.