CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Following the recent bankruptcy filing of coal producer Cambrian Holdings, another Appalachian coal company has filed for bankruptcy protection.
According to court documents, Revelation Energy LLC and its Blackjewel LLC parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of West Virginia. According to the filing, made under the Blackjewel name, the company listed estimated assets of between $10 million and $50 million while listing liabilities with between 200 and 999 creditors. According to the filing, the total estimated liabilities amount to between $100 million and $500 billion dollars. Blackjewel listed 27 “principal assets” in the fling. Among those assets are coal processing and rail loading facilities.
In Southwest Virginia, Norfolk Southern serves several Blackjewel loading facilities of varying sizes and volumes on branches off the railroad’s Appalachia District. In Kentucky, CSX serves a pair of load outs on the former Louisville & Nashville Straight Creek Branch. In Wyoming, BNSF Railway serves the massive Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines near Gillette. [See “Pioneering Powder River Basin mine closes abruptly,” Trains News Wire, July 2, 2019.]
Blackjewel’s filing comes after Kentucky-based Cambrian Holding Co. filed for bankruptcy protection late last month. [See “Kentucky mine served by both CSX and NS enters bankruptcy,” Trains News Wire, June 25, 2019.]
This filing also lists several subsidiaries seeking relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Code, including Blackjewel Holdings LLC, Blackjewel LLC, Revelation Energy Holdings LLC and Revelation Management Corp. According to court documents, the companies are owned by Jeff Hoops and employ about 1,700 employees in Central Appalachia and in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
Hoops said in court documents that declining demand for coal due to cheaper alternative sources of energy, as well as increased costs associated with factors including industry regulation, made the bankruptcy filing necessary.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2017 Annual Coal Report, Revelation Energy/Blackjewel was the sixth largest coal producer in the country, producing more than 37 million short tons of coal.
Court documents indicate the company owes more than $233.7 million to its 30 creditors with the largest unsecured claims, which is required to be listed in the bankruptcy filing. Those creditors are spread across several states, including Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee, and several foreign countries.
Wyoming is this nation’s largest coal mining state
Coal is going the way of the buggy whip. There is no war on coal. It’s just that it no longer makes economic sense to use it anymore. Unless natural prices go up a lot, and coal gets a lot cheaper, coal and its jobs (regrettably) will continue to whither. No deep state conspiracies, just economics.
I worked in the coal biz for about 7 years in Colorado and Northwest New Mexico including trucking coal from Chimney Rock min near Pagosa Springs and the Hesperas tunnel mine near Durango Coi.
It is hard to see such a plentiful source of energy decline; but it just makes sense.
Being old (74), I can remember homes in my native Wisconsin still burning coal. but by the mid 50’s almost all were converted to fuel oil.
It is the same for a utility as it is for a homeowner. a natural gas plant can be fired up quickly in conjunction with wind to fill in when the wind stops. Also there is no coal ash to deal with, At my house I click on the furnace function (natural gas ) and it lights and runs until not needed. Though not as simple for a electric plant it is clean and fast .
The president can do away with all the epa air quality regulations he wants it still will not make a real difference in the long run; unless rules against fracking stop the mining of cheap natural gas.
From above, “According to the filing, the total estimated liabilities amount to between $100 million and $500 billion dollars.” Surely the second figure should be $500 MILLION, not billion.