Coal news and updates

Amid WVa tax reform push, Murray blasts coal tax for layoffs

The day after state lawmakers started talking tax reform, Murray Energy laid off 214 miners with a clear message calling for lower taxes to unearth coal.

In a news release about last week's layoffs, Murray Energy blasted the Obama administration, lamented low natural gas prices and called the state severance tax "extremely excessive."

Republican Senate President Bill Cole said the tax will be reviewed as the GOP-led Legislature mulls ways to reshape the tax code.

Revenues from the coal tax have dwindled as the industry has struggled. But it's a still an important pot of money that aids everything from schools, to health care, to local governments.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he couldn't see lowering the tax now.

source: http://www.mariettatimes.com