On Trial: Peabody Energy's Bankrupt Climate Change Denial

If you’ve scanned the headlines for Peabody Energy, in the last few months, the story is that one of the largest companies comprising King Coal is now going through bankruptcy. But there is a curious development that I came close to overlooking, as it seems that the U.S. press is concentrating more on Paul Ryan and Donald Trump than it is on some of the legal and civil actions around climate change.

            In something of a Scopes Monkey Trial for the 21^st century, in which truth and science are put on trial against big money and anti-science, science and truth have won. The case was to determine if the state of Minnesota could continue to use its “social cost of carbon,” which is set quite low, or adopt the higher federal cost estimates.

            Peabody Energy was involved in the case because the social cost of carbon, an estimate of the costs to society because of the damage of carbon pollution, affects their bottom line.

            Peabody Energy relied on the tactics that are useful to sway portions of public opinion. But as this case showed, their reliance on obfuscation, setting unrealistic requirements of proof, and cherry picking data, falls apart under facile scrutiny.

            Peabody has just been in some hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission for not fully disclosing to their shareholders the risks that climate change poses to their business.
            We know that Peabody faces financial bankruptcy. With the coal giant are we seeing intellectual and moral bankruptcy as well?