Ivan Potter
Thursday, March 17, 2016 4:10 pm

News from Peabody Energy Corporation is bad.

Talk on the street and in an article in the Thursday, 3-17-16 edition of the Wall Street Journal is that Peabody is studying the strategy of corporate bankruptcy.

Based in St. Louis, MO., any possible Peabody Energy Chapter 11 filing would be seen as a major future shock wave. An action of bankruptcy would become a new age of energy market disruption wave, in which workers, pensions, unions, and whole communities would lose.

Peabody Energy, as well as major coal players, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal, and Walter Energy Corporations, totally misread the future. A common linkage of these corporations has been their reliance upon power politics of (1) making the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the bad guy in coal marketing (2) pumping a lot of corporate money into important public figures like McConnell and (3) being on the wrong side of the debate over impacts of Climate Change.

Peabody Energy owes $6.3 billion dollars in debt. Many of the subparts of the company are making money. Yet in today's market conditions, cheap energy costs for consumers' means vast market loss for the coal suppliers.