⁍ U.S. coal baron Robert Murray, an ally of President Donald Trump and a leading industry voice, died on Sunday at age 80.

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⁍ Murray retired on Oct. 19 after 63 years in the coal business, shortly after applying for federal benefits to treat his black lung disease.

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⁍ A colorful and outspoken leader of the Ohio company he founded, Murray Energy, Murray blamed environmental regulation for the demise of the coal industry.

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– “There was no one more passionate about the importance and value of coal, and the absence of his voice will be felt by many,” says the president of the National Mining Association in the wake of coal baron Robert Murray’s death at the age of 80, per Reuters. Murray, who spent decades in the coal business and recently applied for federal benefits to treat his black lung disease, died at his home in St. Clairsville, Ohio, on Sunday. He retired on Oct. 19 after 63 years in the coal business, shortly after applying for federal benefits to treat his black lung disease, a respiratory illness caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust, per a report by West Virginia public radio. A colorful and outspoken leader of the Ohio company he founded, Murray Energy, Murray blamed environmental regulation for the demise of the coal industry and opposed more stringent coal dust regulations for years. He saw an ally in Trump, and pressed his administration to roll back a slew of former President Obama-era rules. While Trump’s administration acted on many rollbacks on Murray’s wishlist, Murray’s company, once the largest privately-held coal company in the country, went bankrupt last year as demand for coal from power utilities slumped. Murray, who had worked underground for 16 years early in his career, wrote in his filing for black lung benefits that he was near death and heavily dependent on an oxygen tank.