An Indiana coal company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has laid off all of its employees. White Stallion Energy, LLC owns four mines in southwest Indiana and two in Illinois.

According to court records, the company suffered financial losses last year as the demand for coal continued to decline and more utilities moved toward renewable energy and natural gas. That problem only got worse as COVID-19 caused the economy to slow down.

White Stallion Energy terminated about 260 employees. It has plans to rehire as many as two dozen people to help the company through the bankruptcy process and deliver coal to its primary customer, Duke Energy.

In an email statement, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said the utility has enough inventory and other coal suppliers to maintain reliable power for its customers.

White Stallion Energy hopes to sell its assets by mid-January.

Contact Rebecca at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.

Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.