User:Havagut/Chris Cline

Chris Cline is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is currently the majority owner of privately-held Foresight Reserves LP, with headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. . Regarded by Bloomberg as the New King Coal, Cline is considered responsible for reviving the Illinois coal industry. His company has more than three billion tons of coal reserves across Illinois and the Northern Appalachia. According to Forbes, Cline has a net worth of $1.7 billion, ranking 278th among American billionaires and #736 in the Forbes list.

Biography
Cline's grandfather mined for coal a century ago with a pickax around Beckley. At the age of six, his father, Paul, asked him to fill a paper bag with dirt, paying him a penny for each bag. Cline dug the dirt from under the porch of their bungalow in Isaban, West Virginia. His father used the dirt bags in mine-blasting. Within two years, their porch had collapsed. According to Cline, his father had told him to "support the roof better."

In 1980, his father had bought out his partner, then gave the shares to Cline, who was then 21 years old and was taking a degree in psychology at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

Breast cancer claimed Cline's first wife, Sabrina, in 1987. Remarrying in 1993, Cline divorced his second wife, Kelly, in 2000.

At present, Cline, father to two sons and two daughters, owns a 33,413-square foot mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and a house in Beckley in Raleigh County, West Virginia, where his 150-acre property contains a lake, a go-kart track and pastures for his horses, goats and llamas.

Mine Games
Cline also owns the 164-foot luxury yacht Mine Games, which can be rented for luxury cruises. Mine Games, which has five staterooms and has its own submarine, was designed and built by Gulf Coast-based Trinity Yachts, owned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Felix Sabates.

Philanthropy
On May 26, 2011, the School of Medicine and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics of West Virginia University received a US$5 million donation from Cline through his Cline Family Foundation. The donation also created the Christopher Cline Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery.

Investing in Illinois coal
Illinois holds a 250-year supply of coal, providing the state with the largest recoverable coal reserve in the United States. The state's coal industry is valued at almost $1 billion, with coal mining operations across 12 counties. One pound of Illinois coal, described as bituminous, can produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity.

Cline, spending $300 million on mining rights and equipment in Illinois, had foreseen that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would require power plants to use scrubbers in removing pollutants. Illinois coal has too much sulfur to be safely burned by most power plants.

In 2005, Foresight Energy built its Williamson longwall mining operation south of West Frankfort in Illinois. Eventually, the coal mining division of the Cline Group acquired Exxonmobil's Monterey No. 1 mine, and developed Sugar Camp, Hillsboro, and the Macoupin complex.

SNL Financial reported in 2008 that Deer Run coal mine in Montgomery County, Illinois, a project of Cline's Hillsboro Energy LLC, would produce up to 8 million tons annually until 2016. In the same report, representatives for Cline said that he was aiming for an annual coal production of 60 million tons from Illinois alone.

Promoting coal for cheap power
Cline said that instead of overreacting to minimal increases in atmospheric C02 and ocean levels, people should take advantage of the low-cost energy offered by coal.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Cline said "As far as the social acceptability of coal, I like to think I’m part of supplying the cheapest energy in America."

Opposition from environmentalists, other sectors
The State Journal-Register of Springfield, Illinois reported on July 19, 2010 that environmental activists took note of the generous donation of Cline's companies to Illinois politicians, especially in the context of Cline's mining operations in the state. Another report, published on April 26, 2011, told about the opposition of local landowners against the longwall mining operations of Deer Run mine near Hillsboro.