Consol Energy’s effort to push rival coal company Murray Energy into liquidation is aimed at shuttering mines and reducing output in an oversupplied industry, according to the largest US coal miners’ union.
“Liquidation plays to the benefit of all the competitors in the region,” United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts said during an online news conference Thursday.
Murray, America’s biggest privately held coal producer, filed for Chapter 11 protection in October. Last week, Consol petitioned the court to convert the case to Chapter 7, a liquidation. Putting mines up for sale piecemeal would likely result in some being acquired primarily to take over their existing sales contracts, then closed, Roberts said.