Shaky future for Wyo. coal - with or without Blackjewel

摘要

On July 1, America' sixth-largest coal company, Blackjewel LLC, shut down without warning. It declared bankruptcy, and nothing has been mined since at the nation's fourth- and fifth-largest coal operations - the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines in Wyoming. But the price of coal in the Powder River Basin hasn't changed. "What it tells you is, at least at that moment in time, that production must not have been needed," said Jim Thompson, lead coal analyst at IHS Markit.