(Bloomberg) -- Foresight Energy LP filed for bankruptcy protection after it was unable to turn a profit on coal mining anymore as power generators switched to cleaner and cheaper fuels.

The company, founded by the late billionaire Christopher Cline, is among a wave of U.S. miners to file for Chapter 11 in recent years, including Murray Energy Corp., which owns a controlling stake and whose owner Robert Murray is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.

The company listed between $1 billion to $10 billion in assets and liabilities in the same range in Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Foresight signaled it was in trouble when it suspended its quarterly dividend in May, and again on Oct. 1 when it missed a $24.4 million interest payment. It hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2014, and matters were made worse by 2019’s unusually heavy rains, which made rivers so high and swift that coal vessels had trouble delivering to power stations.

While Foresight has been struggling for years, its bankruptcy filing comes as investors scrutinize the credit quality of U.S. energy companies in general after a crash in oil prices and a surge in bond yield premiums. Energy-related companies accounted for about 14% of issuance in the U.S. junk bond market, or $202 billion of such notes in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shrinking Industry

Despite the White House efforts to save coal, the industry continues to decline as utilities forsake the fuel for cheap natural gas, wind and solar. Fifteen years ago, coal accounted for more than half of all U.S. power generation. Today it’s less than 25%.

St. Louis-based Foresight’s bankruptcy also follows Chapter 11 filings last year by Cloud Peak Energy Inc., Cambrian Coal, Blackhawk Mining LLC and Blackjewel LLC.

Cline, a mining tycoon born into a coal-mining family, died in a helicopter crash in July. He founded Foresight in 2006 and has been credited with reviving the industry in the Illinois basin. The company has been recognized for efficient production, but that wasn’t enough to compensate for slumping demand and prices. Cline stepped down as chairman in 2017 but remained one of its top shareholders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Murray Energy acquired a stake in Foresight 2015 and gained a majority voting position in its general partner two years later. Robert Murray himself ranks among Foresight’s biggest shareholders, and his nephew Robert Moore has been Foresight’s chairman, president and chief executive.

The case number is 4:20-bk-41308.

(Updates with background on U.S. energy companies in fifth paragraph)

--With assistance from Tim Loh, Rick Green, Andrew Monahan and Ken McCallum.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington, Delaware at schurch3@bloomberg.net;Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rick Green at rgreen18@bloomberg.net, ;Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Ryan, Reg Gale

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