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Coal Company Inked Deal With Chinese Company While Pressing Trump For Bailout
[FreeBeacon] A major coal-mining company that has pushed the Trump administration for a bailout of the industry quietly signed a deal last fall with a Chinese manufacturer to produce mining equipment and did not disclose it to the White House or other government agencies.The deal with China is setting off alarm bells for free-market advocates and others who support President Trump's "America First" policies, as well as the administration's efforts to punish China for its unfair trade practices of "dumping" cheap goods in the United States, including aluminum and steel, as well as washing machines and solar panels. "Alarm bells" is a rather light description. A spokesman for Murray Energy, whose CEO Robert Murray is a major Trump backer, confirmed the deal with Zhengzhou Coal Mining Machinery Group, Co., or ZMJ, to make mine shields. The spokesman said it was necessary to meet a sudden time crunch to keep a mine in Utah running. Mine shields are hydraulic roof supports that keep the walls and ceilings of mines from collapsing and are partly composed of steel.  A Facebook post first tipped off critics to the Chinese business deal. During a mid-January trip to China, Murray Energy executive Eric Lipinski marveled at the technology and height of the 28-foot tall mine shields made by the Chinese company. "Spent the morning touring the ZMJ Factory in China," Lipinski wrote on Facebook in a post he later deleted. "We are building equipment here for our mine in Utah. For my mining buddies...check out these shields that they are building here in China and Mongolia." Ah, death by Facebook. "They are over 28′ high. Unbelievable how big these are and the fact that they are used underground," he wrote in the post. We used to engineer and build awe-inspiring stuff also, Mr. Murray. Remember? More at link including some interesting background. Posted by: Anomalous Sources 2018-02-14 |
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