A new report by the environmental group Greenpeace states that the nation’s largest coal mining companies depend greatly on subsidized federal coal and some have actually increased business because of what Greenpeace calls “corporate welfare for coal.” The irony is that while he Obama administration has targeted the coal industry for the last several years, it has continued its government subsidies of the industry.
The report also reveals that most of the coal mined by the three biggest coal companies belongs to the American public. Greenpeace targeted Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Cloud Peak Energy. Further, the companies in question also mine the major of their coal, nearly 88 percent of total production from land owned and leased by the federal government.
Word of the report comes after Arch Coal, the second largest U.S. coal producer filed for bankruptcy while Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal mining firm said it might also seek bankruptcy protection.
Greenpeace found its supporting documents through a public records request. It pointed out that Cloud Peak Energy and Arch Coal get more than 80 percent of their production from federally leased land.
Peabody ships nearly 20 million tons of a coal a year from Illinois and Indiana but it also operates the Twentymile Mine in Routt County, Colorado, one of the largest underground mines in the U.S. located near Steamboat Springs. The operation’s conveyor belt travels more than five miles underground and two miles on the surface. Until recently, Arch coal had an application in for a major mine in southeastern Montana but last week suspended the request after it filed for bankruptcy protection. Arch coal is based in St. Louis and its decision to pull out of Montana was considered to be a major blow to expansion of mining in the Powder River Basin along the Montana-Wyoming border, the nation’s largest coal-producing region.
Cloud Peak Energy is headquartered in Wyoming and is considered to be one of the safest coal producers in the country. It is also one of the largest U.S. coal producers and mines the Powder River Basin area where it produces low sulfur coal. Cloud Peak has nearly 1,600 employees and is described as a sustainable fuel supplier for nearly 4 percent of the nation’s electricity.
