Another bankruptcy filing by Patriot Coal

Patriot Coal Corporation, America’s largest mountaintop-removal firm and 2^nd-largest mining firm east of the Mississippi, has filed for bankruptcy again (2^nd time in 3 years) and says it’ll sell all of its assets.

This is the same company that had a Johns Hopkins doctor come up with test “results” that showed dying coal miners didn’t have black lung. Their death certificates proved otherwise.

Patriot, based in St. Louis, Missouri, till January when it moved its headquarters officially to Scott Depot, West Virginia, is a 2007 spin-off of Peabody Energy which United Mine Workers officials said was a ploy to get out of paying union miners their pensions and black lung coverage.

Patriot had been exporting 25% of its coal to China and India, but China cracked down to force Chinese companies to use coal from China instead.

Patriot spends more than $2 million a year to lobby against greenhouse gas regulations and clean energy legislation. It has more than $2 billion a year in revenue, but profits have been falling rapidly.


It has eight mining complexes in Appalachia, mostly in West Virginia, including Big Mountain, Blue Creek, Kanawha Eagle and Guyan Mine in Logan County.