Robert Murray, the CEO of the largest privately owned coal producer in the U.S. Murray Energy, attacked Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk on television the other day. Murray said that Musk was a fraud for his inability to turn a profit with subsidies.
In his interview with CNBC on Monday, Murray said Tesla was an example of the many companies collecting subsidies through energy policies supported by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “Here again, it’s subsidies, and Hillary Clinton said they need government help,” he said.
Murray added that such policies were about Clinton “supporting her friends” rather than protecting the environment, and that the shutdown of all U.S. coal plants would do nothing to fight climate change.
For his part Musk decided to just release this statement:
Ouch.