Chris Cline Biography

Christopher "Chris" Cline (born July 5, 1958) is an American mining entrepreneur and philanthropist. As of March 2013, he is the majority owner of privately held Foresight Reserves LP, headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. Regarded by Bloomberg as the New King Coal, Cline is considered responsible for reviving the Illinois coal industry. His company has more than three billion tons of coal reserves across Illinois and the Northern Appalachia. According to Forbes, Cline has a net worth of $1.7 billion, ranking 278th among American billionaires and #736 in the Forbes list.

Biography

Cline's grandfather mined for coal with a pickax around Beckley, West Virginia in the early 20th century. At the age of six, Cline's father, Paul, asked him to fill a paper bag with dirt, paying him a penny for each bag. Cline dug the dirt from under the porch of their bungalow in Isaban, West Virginia. His father used the dirt bags in mine-blasting. Within two years, their porch had collapsed. According to Cline, his father had told him to "support the roof better". In 1980, Cline's father bought out his partner then gave the shares to Cline, who was then 21 years old. At that time, he was studying psychology at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

Breast cancer claimed Cline's first wife, Sabrina, in 1987. He remarried in 1993, but the relationship with his second wife, Kelly, ended in divorce in 2000. Cline, who has two sons and two daughters, owns a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and a home in his native Beckley, West Virginia, where his property contains a lake, a go-kart track and pastures for his horses, goats and llamas.

Mine Games

Cline owns the luxury yacht Mine Games. Mine Games, which has five staterooms and has its own submarine, was designed and built by Gulf Coast-based Trinity Yachts, owned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Felix Sabates.

Philanthropy

The Herald-Dispatch has praised Cline's philanthropy in its July 26, 2011, editorial, commenting that Cline "has not forgotten his roots".

On May 26, 2011, the School of Medicine and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics of West Virginia University received a US$5 million donation from Cline through his Cline Family Foundation. The donation also created the Christopher Cline Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery.

On July 20, 2011, Marshall University received a donation of $5 million from the Cline Family Foundation for sports medicine research. The donation was announced during a fundraising event held at Cline's Beckley home.

Threats against family

On August 20, 2012, Vivek Shah was arrested for the attempted extortion of Chris Cline, Harvey Weinstein, and three other unnamed individuals. On or around June 26, 2012, Shah threatened to kill members of Cline's family if $13 million was not wired to an offshore bank account. A seven-count felony indictment against Shah was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles during the last week in September 2012.

Investing in Illinois coal

Illinois holds a 250-year supply of coal, providing the state with the largest recoverable coal reserve in the United States. The state's coal industry is valued at almost $1 billion, with coal mining operations across 12 counties. One pound of Illinois coal, described as bituminous, can produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity. Cline, spending $300 million on mining rights and equipment in Illinois, had foreseen that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would require power plants to use scrubbers in removing pollutants. Illinois coal has too much sulfur to be safely burned by most power plants.

In 2005, Foresight Energy built its Williamson longwall mining operation south of West Frankfort in Illinois. Eventually, the coal mining division of the Cline Group acquired Exxonmobil's Monterey No. 1 mine, and developed Sugar Camp, Hillsboro, and the Macoupin complex.

SNL Financial reported in 2008 that Deer Run coal mine in Montgomery County, Illinois, a project of Cline's Hillsboro Energy LLC, would produce up to 8 million tons annually until 2016. In the same report, representatives for Cline said that he was aiming for an annual coal production of 60 million tons from Illinois alone.

Opposition

Illinois environmental groups, and landowners, have attempted to block Cline's coal mine permitting and also sought to draw attention to his local political contributions.

Promoting coal for cheap power

Cline said that humankind will benefit more from cheap and abundant energy than from overreacting to what he calls minimal increases so far in atmospheric CO₂ and the level of the world's oceans. In an interview with Bloomberg, Cline said "As far as the social acceptability of coal, I like to think I'm part of supplying the cheapest energy in America."