When coal prices rose in 2009–10 due to increased demand for coal exports – primarily as a result of the industrialization of developing nations (China and India in particular) – the response in the coal industry was a series of consolidations and acquisitions by coal companies at staggering prices. These transactions were highly leveraged (i.e., largely funded through heavy use of debt), which put the coal companies in a precarious position financially once coal prices resumed their inevitable decline as US electric utilities reduced their use of coal, and exports decreased as the world began to consider the climate change impacts of continuing to burn coal. As a result, several large coal companies went bankrupt and, since 2012, more than sixty mine operators have filed for bankruptcy.