Appalachian History Series – Revelation Energy and the Unfinished Mines of Central Appalachia
In early June 2016, the creek that runs past the mouth of California Hollow in Harlan County turned the color of chocolate milk. A berm at an active surface mine had failed, and water from a pit rushed out through a gap that was not supposed to be there. Sediment poured through a series of ponds, bypassed the mine’s controls, and went straight into the stream that neighbors used for gardens and yards.
Within days, inspectors from the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources cited Revelation Energy for water quality and sediment control violations and ordered work on the affected permit to stop until the company fixed the ponds and berms. The episode was brief compared with what Appalachian communities had seen from earlier eras of strip mining, but it captured several truths about Revelation’s presence in the region. The company was working under modern laws. It had permits and monitoring plans. Yet the actual burden of failure still turned up in the ditches and creeks below the mine.
By that point, Revelation Energy was far more than a single mine on a Kentucky hillside. State and federal records show a multi state operator with deep roots in Central Appalachia. A 2021 report from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection notes that as of June 30, 2020, Revelation still held seven surface mining and six underground mining operations in that state, alongside mines and permits in Virginia and Kentucky. In other words, the company’s signature was written across many hollows, not just one.
From One Mine To A Multi State Company
The paper trail for Revelation Energy begins in the mid 2000s with its founder, West Virginia coal operator Jeffrey Hoops. ProPublica’s reconstruction of his career describes an earlier period in which he operated the Hunts Branch Mine in Pike County, Kentucky, before establishing Revelation Energy in 2008. From the start, Revelation presented itself as the kind of company that could work thin margins and overlooked seams.
In the early 2010s, corporate filings for SunCoke Energy show Revelation in a contract mining role at the Jewell coal operations in southwestern Virginia. Under that agreement, Revelation mined coal reserves for SunCoke that lay outside the company’s core proven and probable reserves, an arrangement that made sense only for a contractor willing to work ground that larger firms considered marginal.
This pattern repeated itself across Central Appalachia. Securities filings, lease documents, and later bankruptcy materials describe Revelation leasing and buying properties in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia from firms that were themselves retrenching or headed toward court. When bigger names like James River Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, and Arch Coal began restructuring their own operations, Appalachian reporters and advocacy groups watched as Revelation or its affiliates stepped in to take over some of the mines, preparation plants, and reserves those companies were shedding.
On paper, this looked like opportunity. For regulators and communities, it meant that a company with a short track record was inheriting mines that already carried long histories of disturbance, incomplete reclamation, and prior violations.
Permits, Paperwork, And The Ground Underneath
Revelation Energy’s footprint in Appalachia can be traced permit by permit. Monthly “permitting actions” lists from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet show the company acquiring, amending, or transferring surface and underground permits in Harlan, Knott, Leslie, Pike, and neighboring counties during the 2010s. Environmental site assessments in southeastern Kentucky record additional transfers of permits from earlier owners like Skyview to Revelation, particularly around large surface mines that straddle county lines.
Across the state line in Virginia, the Department of Energy and the Department of Environmental Quality issued individual NPDES water discharge permits to Revelation mines, each one tied to a specific facility and listing outfalls, monitoring requirements, and pollution limits. These documents describe a familiar Appalachian landscape of hollow fills, sediment ponds, and underground portals, now operating under Revelation’s name.
West Virginia records complete the picture. The same 2021 DEP report that tallies Revelation’s seven surface and six underground operations notes that the company’s West Virginia mines were at various stages of bonding and reclamation. Some had achieved partial bond release, while others remained active or in inactive status with full reclamation obligations outstanding.
Together, these state level files show a company that grew less by opening brand new mines than by stepping into existing ones, often in places where earlier operators had already carved highwalls and installed beltlines. The result was a patchwork of Revelation branded sites scattered across multiple Appalachian counties.
Safety Records And Mining Deaths
Like any coal operator, Revelation Energy appears repeatedly in the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s data. The Mine Data Retrieval System lists production figures, inspections, and violation histories tied to Revelation operated mines in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. Behind those numbers lie very specific stories.
On March 28, 2018, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet issued a press release under the blunt title “Mining Death in Harlan County.” It reported that Hubert Grubbs, a 29 year old pre shifter and belt examiner from Harlan, was killed in a conveyor belt accident at Revelation’s D11 Panther Mine in Cumberland. Grubbs had begun his shift at 10:30 the previous evening and was splicing a belt when it unexpectedly started and fatally injured him.
MSHA’s fatality reports for that year and the Kentucky investigation that followed turned one line on Revelation’s record into a detailed examination of training, equipment, and safety procedures underground. Kentucky officials suspended operations at the mine while state inspectors and federal investigators documented what had happened and considered what might have prevented it.
Revelation’s safety record shows up in legal casebooks as well. In Revelation Energy v. Secretary of Labor, a case before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, the company challenged MSHA enforcement actions and argued over how certain accidents and conditions should be classified under federal law. The legal arguments may seem technical, but they point to an ongoing tension between Revelation and regulators over what level of risk and noncompliance was acceptable in the company’s mines.
Water, Enforcement, And The Cost Of Delay
The California Hollow incident was not the only time regulators clashed with Revelation over water and reclamation. After the 2016 sediment leak, Kentucky’s notice of non compliance ordered a partial shutdown on the affected permit until sediment control structures met state standards, a reminder that even day to day operations at modern surface mines can quickly touch downstream neighbors.
In Virginia, reporting by Appalachian Voices and In These Times has followed a cluster of Revelation permits near Kanawha State Forest in West Virginia that became symbols of a broader cleanup crisis. In October 2020, the West Virginia DEP revoked three Revelation permits in that area for chronic water quality and reclamation problems. The mines had a record of violations stretching back years, including both Revelation’s tenure and that of previous owners. When no new company stepped in to take them over, the permits became test cases for how far state regulators could push bond forfeiture and enforcement without destabilizing the entire bond pool.
At the same time, volunteer water testers with regional groups documented acid mine drainage and orange stained streams below Revelation sites in Kentucky and Virginia, tying local observations to permit records and enforcement files. Their work echoed larger data driven investigations.
In 2023, ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight published an analysis of mine violation and bonding data in Kentucky and West Virginia. Looking at hundreds of permits, many of them connected to Revelation and its affiliate Blackjewel, the reporters found that mines that had passed through multiple corporate hands and bankruptcies were far more likely to rack up environmental violations than mines with a single long term owner. Revelation was a central example of that pattern.
July 2019: Bankruptcy As A Turning Point
On July 1, 2019, Revelation Energy and its recently formed affiliate Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The petitions listed hundreds of mining permits across four states, from Harlan County to the Powder River Basin, and described a company facing a liquidity crisis.
Unlike many earlier coal bankruptcies, operations did not continue smoothly while lawyers negotiated. Financing fell through almost immediately. Mines idled in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Paychecks that had already been deposited were suddenly reversed out of miners’ bank accounts. News outlets in the Ohio Valley ReSource network and advocacy groups like Kentuckians For The Commonwealth captured the shock and anger that followed, particularly in eastern Kentucky where miners blocked tracks to keep loaded coal trains from leaving without their wages.
For Revelation’s workforce, the distinction between Revelation and Blackjewel often mattered less than whether the company name on a pay stub still meant anything at the bank. A federal class action complaint filed under the WARN Act alleged that the companies violated federal law by shutting down without the required advance notice, leaving workers abruptly unemployed and overdrawn. That complaint, drawing on the bankruptcy filings, laid out a detailed list of mines, employment numbers, and the timeline of the shutdown in Appalachian counties.
Inside the bankruptcy case, the amended disclosure statement and plan of liquidation filed in October 2020 pulled back the curtain on Revelation’s corporate structure. The documents walk through layers of limited liability affiliates, secured lender claims, tax debts, unpaid royalties, and environmental obligations. They also describe which Appalachian mines and permits would be sold to new operators and which would be abandoned or left to bond forfeiture.
Health Plans, Retirement, And Federal Enforcement
Bankruptcy did not only raise questions about reclamation. It also exposed how Revelation handled workers’ benefits in the years before the filing.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration announced a federal court judgment requiring trustees of a Blackjewel retirement plan to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution after investigators found that money deducted from miners’ paychecks for their 401(k) contributions and employer matches had never been forwarded to the plan.
On the same day, the department publicized a separate settlement over unreimbursed medical bills from a self insured health plan sponsored by Revelation Energy and related companies. Investigators concluded that the companies had failed to properly fund the plan, leaving workers with outstanding bills that should have been covered by employer sponsored health insurance.
For miners who had already lived through layoffs and wage uncertainty, these findings confirmed that the problems ran deeper than a single bad quarter or a downturn in coal prices. Paychecks, retirement savings, and health coverage had all been strained by the company’s financial decisions long before the July 2019 petitions hit the docket.
After Revelation: Who Cleans Up And Who Pays
Today, Revelation Energy survives mostly in legal captions and regulatory reports. Its mines have been sold, transferred, shut down, or left in various stages of reclamation. Yet the responsibilities it took on across Central Appalachia did not vanish when the company name faded.
In West Virginia, the revocation and later reinstatement of Revelation related permits near Kanawha State Forest has become part of a broader debate over whether the state’s bond pool can withstand multiple large bankruptcies without leaving taxpayers to cover long term water treatment and reclamation costs. In Kentucky and Virginia, news stories, law review blogs, and advocacy reports now use Revelation and Blackjewel as case studies in how modern coal companies can use bankruptcy to shift the risks of cleanup onto public agencies.
Appalachian citizens’ groups and legal advocates have spent years tracking the status of Revelation permits, submitting comments on proposed transfers, and urging regulators and courts to prioritize reclamation obligations over other creditor claims. Their work is often technical and incremental. A bond forfeiture here, an enforcement motion there, a consent decree in another case that references old Revelation sites by permit number. But taken together, these efforts are part of the region’s attempt to make sure that the scars left behind by the company are not simply absorbed into the landscape and forgotten.
Why Revelation Energy Matters For Appalachian History
In one sense, Revelation Energy fits a long pattern in Appalachian history. Coalfield residents have watched company names change on tipples and pay envelopes for more than a century. Mines that were once operated by a railroad company or a family firm later belong to a conglomerate, then to a holding company, and eventually to a limited liability operator with a short lifespan.
Yet Revelation’s story also marks a specific chapter in the region’s experience of coal’s decline. It grew precisely because other operators were shrinking, buying mines and permits that had already passed through bankruptcies and restructurings. It operated under federal and state laws that promised more accountability than earlier eras but still struggled to prevent major safety incidents, sediment spills, and chronic water problems. It entered bankruptcy at a moment when the old expectation that companies would quietly finish reclamation at the end of a mining life no longer matched the reality of shrinking markets and overstretched bond systems.
For Appalachian communities, the name Revelation Energy may conjure different memories. Some remember a paycheck that kept a household afloat for a time. Others remember a creek that ran brown, a conveyor belt or dozer accident that took a life, or a notice from a hospital when an insurance card turned out to be worth less than it seemed.
For historians, the company offers a clear lens on how corporate strategy, regulation, and everyday life intersected in the coalfields in the early twenty first century. Its permits link back to earlier boom eras and forward to current struggles over cleanup and economic transition. Its bankruptcy ties together miners in Kentucky, regulators in Charleston and Frankfort, and federal judges in West Virginia who must decide how to weigh environmental obligations against financial claims.
Revelation Energy is gone as an active operator, but its unfinished work remains visible in unreclaimed highwalls, lingering water treatment systems, and the legal and political debates that continue around them. Telling its story is one way to trace how the last decades of Central Appalachian coal have reshaped not only the land but the ways communities understand responsibility, risk, and the true cost of a ton of coal.
Sources & Further Reading
Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center. “Blackjewel Has Environmental Debts, Bankruptcy Court Told.” Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, June 25, 2020. https://archive.kftc.org/blog/blackjewel-has-environmental-debts-bankruptcy-court-told. Kentuckians For The Commonwealth
Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center. “Bankruptcy.” Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center. https://aclc.org/category/bankruptcy/. Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center
Appalachian Voices. Erin Savage. “Blackjewel and Revelation Energy Coal Bankruptcy Raises Concerns for Workers and Mine Cleanup.” Appalachian Voices, August 7, 2019. https://appvoices.org/2019/08/07/blackjewel-and-revelation-energy-coal-bankruptcy/. Appalachian Voices
Appalachian Voices. Kevin Ridder. “The Impacts of Coal Bankruptcies.” Appalachian Voices, February 24, 2020. https://appvoices.org/2020/02/24/the-impacts-of-coal-bankruptcies/. Appalachian Voices
Bruggers, James. “Blackjewel’s Bankruptcy Filing Is a Harbinger of Trouble for Coal Communities.” Inside Climate News, March 3, 2021. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032021/blackjewel-bankruptcy-kentucky-abandoned-mines/. Inside Climate News
Good Jobs First. “Violation Tracker Individual Record: Blackjewel L.L.C.” Violation Tracker. https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/violation-tracker/va-blackjewel-llc-74. Violation Tracker
House, Brent. “The Rising Cost of Reclaiming Kentucky.” Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law (blog), February 8, 2021. https://www.kjeanrl.com/full-blog/houseblog2. Kentucky Equine Law Journal
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Department for Natural Resources. “Permitting Actions – February 2016.” In Permitting Actions. Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Mining/Mine-Permits/Pages/Permitting-Actions.aspx. Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Department for Natural Resources. “Surface Mining Information System (SMIS).” https://smis.ky.gov. Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet
Kentucky Lantern. Jamie Lucke. “Search Continues for Man Missing in Collapsed Coal Plant in Eastern Kentucky.” Kentucky Lantern, November 2, 2023. https://kentuckylantern.com/2023/11/02/search-continues-for-man-missing-in-collapsed-coal-plant-in-eastern-kentucky/. Kentucky Lantern+1
Kroll Restructuring Administration. “Blackjewel L.L.C., et al.” Case Information Website. https://cases.ra.kroll.com/blackjewel. Kroll Cases+1
LEO Weekly. Ryan Van Velzer. “Kentucky Coal Mine Safety, Environmental Violations Are ‘Completely Out of Control’ as the Industry Declines.” LEO Weekly, April 21, 2022. https://www.leoweekly.com/news/kentucky-coal-mine-safety-environmental-violations-are-completely-out-of-control-as-the-industry-declines-15296710. LEO Weekly
Louisville Public Media. Erica Peterson and Brittany Patterson. “Major Appalachian Coal Company Files for Bankruptcy Protection.” Louisville Public Media, July 1, 2019. https://www.lpm.org/news/2019-07-01/major-appalachian-coal-company-files-for-bankruptcy-protection. Kroll Cases+1
Louisville Public Media. Brittany Patterson. “Conservation Groups Concerned about Cleanup Costs for Bankrupt Blackjewel Coal.” Louisville Public Media, December 18, 2019. https://www.lpm.org/news/2019-12-18/conservation-groups-concerned-about-cleanup-costs-for-bankrupt-blackjewel-coal. Louisville Public Media+1
Mine Safety and Health Administration. “Mine Data Retrieval System.” U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration. https://www.msha.gov/mine-data-retrieval-system. ProPublica
Mine Safety and Health Administration. “Petitions for Modification of Application of Existing Mandatory Safety Standards; Docket No. M–2017–018–C, Revelation Energy, LLC, D–1A Garmeada Mine.” Federal Register 82, no. 206 (October 26, 2017). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/10/26/2017-23250/petitions-for-modification-of-application-of-existing-mandatory-safety-standards. Federal Register+1
Moomey, Liz. “Will Blackjewel Leave Eastern Kentuckians to Clean Up Its Abandoned Coal Mines?” Lexington Herald-Leader, January 14, 2021. https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article248206170.html. Kentucky+1
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Vivian Stockman. “Revelation: Alpha Weasels Out of Bonding Obligations.” Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, November 16, 2017. https://ohvec.org/revelation-alpha-weasels-bonding-obligations/. Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight. Ken Ward Jr., Alex Mierjeski, Scott Pham, and Anna Maria Barry-Jester. “How Bankruptcy Helps the Coal Industry Avoid Environmental Liability.” ProPublica, April 26, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/west-virginia-coal-blackjewel-bankruptcy-pollution. ProPublica+1
ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight. Ken Ward Jr. “West Virginians Could Get Stuck Cleaning Up the Coal Industry’s Messes.” ProPublica, December 1, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/west-virginians-could-get-stuck-cleaning-up-coal-industry-messes. ProPublica+1
ProPublica and Mountain State Spotlight. “How We Measured the Environmental Cost of Bankrupt Mines.” ProPublica, April 26, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-we-measured-environmental-cost-bankrupt-mines. ProPublica+1
Radmacher, Dan. “In Appalachia, the Mine Cleanup System Has Collapsed.” In These Times, March 23, 2022. https://inthesetimes.com/article/coal-blackjewel-bankruptcy-environmental-cleanup-virginia-kentucky. Risk Management Agency+1
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. “Amended Disclosure Statement for the Debtors’ Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation of Blackjewel L.L.C. and Its Affiliated Debtors, et al., Case No. 3:19-bk-30289.” Filed October 21, 2020. https://www.wvsb.uscourts.gov/sites/wvsb/files/Blackjewel%20Amended%20D.S..pdf. Western VA Bankruptcy Court+1
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. “Federal Court Orders Coal Producer Retirement Plan Trustees to Pay $637K in Restitution for Unremitted Contributions, Unlawfully Diverted Funds.” News release, January 30, 2024. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ebsa/ebsa20240130. DOL+1
U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. “Department of Labor Reaches Settlement to Resolve $1.2M in Medical Claims Unpaid by Revelation Energy LLC Health Care Plan, Affiliated Entities.” News release, January 30, 2024. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ebsa/ebsa20240130-0. DOL+1
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. “Revelation Energy, LLC v. Secretary of Labor.” Decision of Administrative Law Judge Jerold Feldman, June 5, 2014. https://www.fmshrc.gov/sites/default/files/decisions/alj/KENT%202011-1106.pdf. Mine Safety Review Commission+1
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. “WVDEP Approves Permit Reinstatements to Allow for Reclamation of Rush Creek Mine.” News release, November 2, 2021. https://dep.wv.gov/news/Pages/WVDEP-approves-permit-reinstatements-to-allow-for-reclamation-of-Rush-Creek-Mine.aspx. Regional Associations
West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. “2017 Annual Report and Directory of Mines.” Includes production and employment data for Revelation Energy mines. https://minesafety.wv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CY-2017-Annual-Report.pdf. West Virginia Legislature+1
West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. “Summaries of Fatal Accidents in 2017.” Includes the December 29, 2017 fatality at a Revelation Energy surface mine. https://minesafety.wv.gov/2017-fatal-accident-summaries/. WV Miners’ Health & Safety
West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Ashton Marra. “W.Va. Regulators Halt Mine Near Kanawha State Forest.” West Virginia Public Broadcasting, June 5, 2015. https://wvpublic.org/w-va-regulators-halt-mine-near-kanawha-state-forest/. West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Wright, Will. “KY Might Get Bill for Blackjewel’s Environmental Violations.” Lexington Herald-Leader, January 23, 2020. https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article239560658.html. Kentucky+1
Wright, Will, and Bill Estep. “Major Kentucky Coal Producer Declares Bankruptcy.” Lexington Herald-Leader, July 2, 2019. https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article232164812.html. Kentucky+1
WYMT News Staff. “State Regulators Cite Harlan County Coal Mine after Sediment Leaks into Creek.” WYMT, June 9, 2016. https://www.wymt.com/content/news/State-regulators-cite-Harlan-County-coal-mine-after-sediment-leaks-into-creek-382329961.html. https://www.wymt.com
WYMT News Staff. “Blackjewel, Revelation Energy May Cost Kentucky Taxpayers Millions for Environmental Violations.” WYMT, January 23, 2020. https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Blackjewel-Revelation-Energy-may-cost-Kentucky-taxpayers-millions-for-environmental-violations-567242591.html. https://www.wymt.com+1
WYMT News Staff. “Class-Action Suit Filed to Recover Wages for Blackjewel Miners.” WYMT, July 9, 2019. https://www.wymt.com/content/news/Class-action-suit-filed-to-recover-wages-for-Blackjewel-miners–512499951.html. https://www.wymt.com+1
WKU Public Radio / Ohio Valley ReSource. Sydney Boles. “Blackjewel Miners Block Railroad to Demand Pay from Bankrupt Coal Company.” WKU Public Radio, July 30, 2019. https://www.wkyufm.org/economy/2019-07-30/blackjewel-miners-block-railroad-to-demand-pay-from-bankrupt-coal-company. wkyufm.org
Author Note: This article is a companion to my earlier Blackjewel piece, following the specific trail Revelation Energy left through Appalachian permits, safety records, and court filings. I wrote it to help neighbors, students, and researchers see how one company’s decisions reshaped work, water, and reclamation across Central Appalachia.