Murray Energy CEO calls Tesla a fraud and Elon Musk tweets it

The head of the biggest privately owned US coal producer on Monday called electric-car maker Tesla Motors a “fraud” for failing to turn a profit despite subsidies. Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla, fired back at Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray within hours on Twitter.

In his post, Musk said Tesla gets “pennies” on the dollar in subsidies compared with the coal industry, and that climate science denial is the “real fraud”.

The verbal sparring between Murray and Musk comes as seismic changes in energy policy and competition from natural gas have pummelled coal miners, leading to bankruptcies and record production cuts.

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 US coal plants would do nothing to fight climate change.