Cloud Peak Energy Inc. is a company headquartered in

Gillette, Wyoming Gillette (, '' jih-LET'') is a city in and the county seat of Campbell County, Wyoming, United States. The town was founded in 1891 as a major railway town on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The population was estimated at 32,030 a ...

which mines

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

in the Powder River Basin. The company was formed as a

corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. Characte ...

from Rio Tinto Energy America in 2009. In its 2009 Annual Report Rio Tinto stated that it held a 48.3% stake in Cloud Peak Energy and its directly owned mines.Rio Tinto
2009 Annual Report: Production & reserves: Group mines: Energy"
, Rio Tinto website, 2010. Cloud Peak Energy also has a 50% stake in the Decker Coal Company, which operates the Decker Mine in Montana. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Cloud Peak Energy Inc was responsible for 0.1% of global industrial

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

from 1988-2015. In May 2019, Cloud Peak Energy filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. An analyst pointed to severe declines in demand for Powder River coal from markets in East Asia and the United States.

Operations

The firm operates three open pit mines from thick deposits in Wyoming and Montana.

Crow Nation

The firm has contracted with the

Crow Nation The Crow, whose Exonym and endonym, autonym is Apsáalooke (), also spelled Absaroka, are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans living primarily in southern Montana. Today, the Crow people have a federally recognized tribe, th ...

to mine 20 million tons of coal annually on its reservation for shipment by rail to coal terminals in the Pacific Northwest for shipment to Asia. The project is called the Big Metal Project after a legendary Crow chief. Big Metals Coal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cloud Peak. The facilities of Cloud Peak's Spring Creek Mine are located directly to the east of the reservation and will be available for the use of Big Metal.

Funding of climate change denial

Documents that have become public after the bankruptcy show that the company has funded several organizations that are known for spreading

climate change denial Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or th ...

. Among them are the

Institute for Energy Research The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that, according to itself, conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets. IER maintains ...

, a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

that denies the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific org ...

and opposes

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

, the

Center for Consumer Freedom The Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) and prior to that the Guest Choice Network, is an American non-profit entity founded by Richard Berman. It describes itself as "dedicated ...

, the pro-fossil American Legislative Exchange Council, which says that climate change is uncertain, the Montana Policy Institute which claims that earth is cooling, Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, dark-money-groups such as

Crossroads GPS American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in ''Citizens United ...

and several other groups and organizations. In the past Cloud Peak Energy has denied any ties to the climate denial movement. For example, Richard Reavey, a vice president for government and public affairs, has stated Cloud Peak Energy “has never fought climate change — never fought it, never denied it or funded anyone who does.”Lee Fang:
A Major Coal Company Went Bust. Its Bankruptcy Filing Shows That It Was Funding Climate Change Denialism.
'.

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...

, May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 20th, 2019.

Notes and references

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External links and further reading

Cloud Peak Energy
at Sourcewatch Non-renewable resource companies established in 2009 Coal companies of the United States Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies traded over-the-counter in the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 Companies based in Wyoming Gillette, Wyoming Corporate spin-offs