Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy is the world's biggest private coal company. A study in 2013 revealed it was one of 90 companies responsible for two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions.

Suzanne Goldberg of the Guardian has described Peabody’s official position on climate science as 'divorced from scientific reality'.

Activities

USA

Peabody Energy runs the world’s biggest coalmine in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. According to the Guardian:

At the east pit of Peabody’s North Antelope Rochelle mine, the layer of coal takes up 60ft of a 250ft trough in the earth, and runs in an interrupted black stripe for 50 miles.

Scott Durgin, senior vice-president for Peabody’s operations in the Powder River Basin, watching the giant machinery at work. “This is one of the biggest seams you will ever see. This particular shovel is one of the largest shovels you can buy, and that is the largest truck you can buy.”

By Durgin’s rough estimate, the mine occupies 100 square miles of high treeless prairie, about the same size as Washington DC. It contains an estimated three billion tonnes of coal reserves. It would take Peabody 25 or 30 years to mine it all. But it’s still not big enough.

Australia

• Peabody has three mines in Australia, which has the world’s second largest reserves of coal. The company has ramped up production 37% since 2000, helped by up to $3.5bn in government subsidies to the entire fossil fuel industry according to a report from the Overseas Development Institute and Oil Change International, published November 2014.

Contact

Website:

Resources

• Suzanne Goldberg, The real story of US coal: inside the world's biggest coalmine, The Guardian, 11 November 2014