Steyer-Taylor Center Scholar-in-Residence Jeffrey Ball interviews an executive in the coal industry on how a changing market has affected his business.

The coal business is facing one of the toughest challenges of any energy industry out there: Can it figure out how to survive and thrive as it faces a growing public call to cut carbon emissions?

Jeffrey Ball, contributing editor at The Wall Street Journal and scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, spoke with Robert Murray, chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., one of the largest coal companies in the U.S.—and one of the most aggressive about trying to survive in a changing climate.

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MR. BALL: Explain to people what’s up with your industry these days and how you’re trying to reframe your company to thrive in it.

MR. MURRAY: The U.S. coal industry is being destroyed. Prior to President Obama it was 52% of the electricity in America. Today it’s 37%. Most prognosticators say 32% to 34%. I say 30%. I’m more negative than anyone else that I know on the coal industry.