Corporate coal hub of STL faces more big bankruptcies

It’s been a bleak year already for St. Louis-area coal companies, but the worst may be yet to come.

Last week, Peabody Energy and Foresight Energy announced they might join Arch Coal in filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, brought on by heavy debt and industry wide declines.

Arch had reduced its Creve Coeur workforce to 175 – about 20 percent from the previous year – when it filed Chapter 11 in January. But for companies like Foresight, which employs 65 in its corporate office downtown, those hit the hardest by potential layoffs are likely to be contractors in its Illinois mines.

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.