PATRIOT COAL BANKRUPTCY U.S. Bankruptcy Court Moves Patriot Coal Bankruptcy Case To St. Louis
Reported by: Jeff Morris
Web Producer: Jeff Morris
Reported: Nov. 27, 2012 5:56 PM EST
Eyewitness News Photo
New York
U.S. Bankruptcy Court will move the Patriot Coal bankruptcy case from New York to St. Louis.
The decision reached by the court on Tuesday was announced by the United Mine Workers of America. In a statement issued in a news release, UMW President Cecil Roberts applauded the move.
"The U.S. Bankruptcy Court made the right call today when it moved the Patriot Coal case from New York to St. Louis,” Roberts said. “Nobody has ever mined one ounce of coal in Manhattan. Patriot Coal executives set up two dummy corporations in New York because they wanted their case heard in a forum far from the coalfields.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month, a historic agreement was struck that would allow bankrupt Patriot Coal to become the first U.S. operator to stop large-scale mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia under a historic agreement with three environmental groups.
The deal was reached Nov. 15 and presented to a federal judge in Huntington.
It stems from pollution lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
St. Louis-based Patriot must resolve litigation during its bankruptcy proceedings.
It will idle some equipment immediately, phasing out large-scale strip mining. Going forward, it agrees to do only small-scale surface mining near planned or existing underground operations.
In exchange, it gets more time to install selenium treatment systems at several mines.
The agreement caps how much coal Patriot can produce from surface mines and requires it to withdraw two valley-fill permit applications.
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Jeff Morris
