US coal statistics

Currently, 26 US states produce coal, and the largest coal producing state is Wyoming.

Coal is currently the most abundant fossil fuel in United States, and if US continues to use coal in the future at the same rate as today, it should have enough coal for the next 300 years.

Coal is more cost effective compared to oil and natural gas, in average 3,5 times more cheaper than oil and natural gas.

More than 90% of US coal is used to generate electricity.

24.8% of world's coal reserves are found within the United States.

Coal currently accounts for around 45% of US electricity production.

In 2009, US total primary coal production was 1,072,752 thousand short tons. The total coal consumption in the same year was 1,000,424 thousand short tons.

In 2009 United States imported 22,639 thousand short tons of coal, significantly less than 34,208 in 2008, mostly due to the financial crisis.

In 2009, US exported 59,097 thousand short tons of coal.

In 2009, the total US CO2 emissions resulted from the consumption of the coal were 2,125.168 million metric tons.

In the last 40 years, coal production in United States has increased by 71%.

In the United States, the most efficient coal power plants achieve efficiency of around 40 percent. The typical efficiency for coal power plant is 34,3%.

Coal power plants have operation and maintenance costs at approximately 0.75 cents per kilowatt hour, and a total fuel and operating costs averaging at 2.83 cents per kilowatt hour.

US currently has over 600 coal power plants.

Coal power plants are losing popularity in United States because coal is labeled as the dirtiest fuel, mostly responsible for climate change issue; this is the main reason why more than 90% of new power plants that will be built in the United States will likely be fueled by natural gas, which is a less polluting fossil fuel compared to coal.