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Early years (1883 – 1959)
The Peabody Energy company was originally founded as Peabody, Daniels & Company in 1883 by Francis Peabody, the son of a prominent Chicago lawyer, and a partner. The company bought coal from established mines and sold it to homes and businesses in the Chicago area. In the late 1880’s, Francis Peabody bought out his partner’s share of the business and the company was incorporated in the state of Illinois under the name Peabody Coal Company in 1890. In 1895, it began operations of its first mine, in Williamson County, Illinois and later expanded it’s operations in Illinois. Following World War I, the company’s growth accelerated, and the corporation went public for the first time in 1929 with a listing on the Midwest Stock Exchange, and, in 1949, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Despite being ranked eighth among the country’s top coal producers in the mid 1950’s, Peabody began to lose market share to companies operating cost-efficient surface mining operations. To address the situation, it entered into merger talks with Sinclair Coal Company. A merger between the two companies occurred in 1955, resulting in the transfer of Peabody's headquarters to St. Louis, Missouri. The merged company, however, retained the Peabody name.

1960-2000
In 1962, Peabody expanded into the Pacific with the opening of mining operations in Queensland, Australia. . The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, however, challenged the purchase as an antitrust violation. In 1976, the FTC ordered Kennecott to divest itself of Peabody. The newly-created Peabody Holding Company purchased the Peabody Coal business of Kennecott for $1.1 billion, and a consortium of companies controlled Peabody-Holding.

In the 1980s, Peabody expanded its operations in the Eastern United States, acquiring the West Virginia coal mines of Armco Inc in 1984. The company sought to broaden its metallurgical coal portfolio through the purchase of Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates’ seven West Virginia mines in 1987. Peabody also expanded westward, opening the North Antelope and Rochelle mines in the low sulfur Wyodak seam in the heart of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin in 1983 and 1984, respectively.

The passage of the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990 prompted the closure of some Peabody mines. However, other mines under its ownership were able to remain in operation due to the implementation of new equipment and procedures that reduced sulfur dioxide emissions. Stricter requirements outlined in Phase II of the legislation also prompted Peabody to invest in emissions reducing technologies. In 1990, the U.K.-based conglomerate Hanson plc, one of the owners of Peabody Holding at the time, bought out the rest of the owners.

In the mid 1990’s Peabody Energy expanded their holdings in the Pacific with the acquisition of three mines in Australia. During the same period, Peabody also expanded its operations domestically with acquisitions in New Mexico and Wyoming.

Current Era
Following corporate ownership changes in the 1990s, the company filed an initial public offering (IPO) in May 2001, and since this time it has operated as a publicly-traded company. In 2002 Peabody launched its Peabody Energy Australia Coal Co. following the acquisition of the Wilkie Creek Mine in Queensland’s Surat Basin. In October 2006, Peabody completed an acquisition of Excel Coal Limited, an independent coal company in Australia. Peabody paid $1.52 billion for Excel and also assumed $227 million of Excel's debt. At the time, Excel owned three operating mines and three development-stage mines in Australia. Additionally, Excel had an estimated 500 million tons of proven and probable coal reserves. As of 2011, Peabody operates mines in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Most of the company’s Australian production is metallurgical coal.

The company also advanced a number of coal-to-liquids and coal-to-gas projects to reduce emissions during the decade. On August 30, 2007, Ernie Fletcher, the governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky signed into state law a bill that will provide approximately $300 million in incentives to Peabody to build a coal gasification plant in that state. The resulting incentives were provisioned in the form of breaks on sales taxes, incentive taxes and coal severance taxes. In 2010, Peabody Energy CEO Gregory Boyce introduced Peabody’s proposal to reduce energy poverty that consisted of an expanded use of coal generated electricity.