Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (USD $)
In Thousands, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Mar. 31, 2014
Income Statement [Abstract]    
Revenues $ 677,005 $ 735,971
Costs, expenses and other operating    
Cost of sales (exclusive of items shown separately below) 562,322 686,314
Depreciation, depletion and amortization 104,874 104,423
Amortization of acquired sales contracts, net (3,390) (3,696)
Change in fair value of coal derivatives and coal trading activities, net 1,220 914
Selling, general and administrative expenses 22,605 29,136
Other operating (income) expense, net 9,086 (7,998)
Total operating expenses 696,717 809,093
Loss from operations (19,712) (73,122)
Interest expense, net    
Interest expense (99,252) (96,471)
Interest and investment income 2,373 1,843
Interest expense, net (96,879) (94,628)
Loss from continuing operations before income taxes (116,591) (167,750)
Benefit from income taxes (3,396) (43,611)
Net loss $ (113,195) $ (124,139)
Losses per common share    
Basic and diluted LPS - Net loss (usd per share) $ (0.53) $ (0.59)
Basic and diluted weighted average shares outstanding (shares) 212,660 212,171
Dividends declared per common share (usd per share) $ 0 $ 0.01