Coal in the United States

Utilities buy more than 90 percent of the coal mined in the United States [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_586978.html] .

Since the presidency of George W. Bush began in January 2001, coal-fired power generation has enjoyed a resurgence in the United States. Following a massive and consistent decline in new coal-fired power plant projects that began in the late 1970s, the Bush administration, along with other federal and state legislators - faced with rising oil and volatile natural gas prices - has actively promoted coal as a low-cost energy alternative. The political connections between the Bush administration and coal executives have been central to this resurgence of coal power. [http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/Coal-Scores-Bush.htm "Coal Scores With Wager on Bush Belief"] , "Washington Post", March 25, 2001.]

However, the substantial increase in public concern about global warming that has occurred in the U.S. in the last few years [http://research.yale.edu/envirocenter/uploads/epoll/YaleEnvironmentalPoll2007Keyfindings.pdf "Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy 2007 Environment Survey"] , Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy website, March 7, 2007.] - especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and of Al Gore's receipt of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change - has caused a increasing amount of public opposition to new coal-fired power plants. [http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-21-093.asp "Iowans Want Energy Conservation Before New Coal Plants"] , Environment News Service, December 21, 2007.] [http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jan/04/kansans_support_decision_nix_coal_plants_want_focu/ "Kansans Support Decision to Nix Coal Plants, Want Focus on Wind Energy"] , "Lawrence Journal-World", January 4, 2008.] Alongside this shift in public opinion, the growing power of the anti-coal movement - both in the U.S. and internationally, especially in the U.K. and Australia - has made coal-fired power projects more politically costly, and the publicity surrounding anti-coal campaigns has in turn spurred further shifts in public opinion against coal-fired power.Nace, Ted. [http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/506 "Stopping Coal In Its Tracks"] , "Orion", January/February 2008.] [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/business/20coal.html "Fight Against Coal Plants Draws Diverse Partners"] , "New York Times", October 20, 2007.] [ [http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/you_re_getting_warmer/Content?oid=596643 "You're Getting Warmer"] , "East Bay Express", December 5, 2007.]

In an effort to counter this trend, many of the largest coal mining companies, electric utilities, and railroads in the U.S. have recently launched a high-profile marketing campaign, aimed at convincing the American public that coal-fired power can be environmentally sustainable. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/03/BUG7P9KG4H1.DTL "Spreading Misleading Messages"] , "San Francisco Chronicle", November 3, 2004.] [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702837.html "Coal Industry Plugs Into the Campaign"] , "Washington Post", January 18, 2008.] However, many leading environmentalists have condemned this campaign as an example of "greenwashing": an attempt to use environmentalist rhetoric to disguise the inherently environmentally unsustainable nature of coal-fired power generation. [ [http://understory.ran.org/2008/01/23/greenwash-of-the-week-coal-industry-buys-off-cnn-debates/ "Greenwash of the Week: Coal Industry Buys Off CNN debates"] , Rainforest Action Network Understory blog, January 23, 2008.] As the influential Australian environmental activist Tim Flannery puts it: [ [http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21225432-661,00.html "Coal Can't Be Clean - Flannery"] , "Melbourne Herald Sun", February 14, 2007.]

Coal mining

27 states produce coal. [http://www.ket.org/Trips/Coal/AGSMM/agsmmwhere.html] The major coal-producing states are (in descending order as of 2000, with annual production in thousands of short tons) [http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/statepro/imagemap/usaimagemap.htm] [http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/cia/html/tbl03p01p1.html] :
*Wyoming (338,900).
*West Virginia (158,257)
*Kentucky (130,688)
*Pennsylvania (74,619)
*Texas (49,498)
*Montana (38,352)
*Illinois (33,444)
*Virginia (32,834)
*North Dakota (31,270)
*Colorado (29,137)
*Indiana (27,965)
*New Mexico (27,323)
*Utah (26,656)
*Ohio (22,269)
*Alabama (19,324)
*Arizona (13,111)

Total United States: 1,437,174

Coal power in the United States

Coal power accounts for about half of the electricity production in the United States. Utilities buy more than 90 percent of the coal mined in the United States [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_586978.html] .

In 2006, there were 1493 coal-powered units at the electrical utilities across the US, with the total nominal capacity of 335.8 GW [cite web
title = Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States
publisher = Energy Information Administration
date = 2007
url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/capacity/capacity.html
accessdate = 2008-06-19] (compared to 1024 units at nominal 278 GW in 2000). [cite web
title = Inventory of Electric Utility Power Plants in the United States 2000
publisher = Energy Information Administration
date = March, 2002
url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/ipp/html1/t1p01.html
accessdate = 2008-06-19] The actual average generated power from coal in 2006 was 227.1 GW (1.991 trillion kilowatt-hours per year)cite web
title = Electric Power Annual with data for 2006
publisher = Energy Information Administration
date = October, 2007
url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html
accessdate = 2008-06-19] , the highest in the world and still slightly ahead of China (1.95 trillion kilowatt-hours per year) at that time. [See Wikipedia article on chinese Economy] Back in 2000, the US average production of electricity from coal was 224.3 GW (1.966 trillion kilowatt-hours per year). In 2006, the U.S. consumed convert|1026636000|short ton|metric ton or 92.3% of coal for electricity generation. [cite web
title = U.S. Coal Consumption by End-Use Sector
publisher = Energy Information Administration
date = July 25, 2008
url = http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t25p01p1.html
accessdate = 2008-08-29]

See also

* Americans for Balanced Energy Choices
* Clean coal
* Coal mining in the United States
* Coal power in the United States
* Coal power in China]
* Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States

References

* http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._coal_politics