Back in 2013, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU), pulled off a new trick from the ever-growing trove of corporate subterfuge. Peabody created a new entity that it named Patriot Coal and moved more than $2 billion in retirement and environmental obligations into the new subsidiary. Patriot Coal, shortly thereafter, filed for bankruptcy, making Peabody the energy sector’s pioneer of this new type of malfeasance. And now a host of oil companies have borrowed a leaf from Peabody’s playbook with an oily twist: Declaring bankruptcy and shirking the environmental cleanup responsibilities for their abandoned wells. Fieldwood Energy , an offshore drilling company, is one such company. Fieldwood Energy is facing stiff opposition from the likes of Chevron Inc . (-0.57%) (NYSE:CVX), BP Inc. (-0.57%) (NYSE:BP), and Marathon Oil (-0.57%) (NYSE:MRO) after it recently declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and proposed a restructuring plan that will see the […]