Coal - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 14

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Coal

Domestic reserves of coal in the United States are plentiful. As of January 1, 2010, remaining
U.S. recoverable coal reserves were estimated at over 259 billion short tons (a short ton equals
2,000 pounds), from a demonstrated base of 484 billion short tons of reserves that may support
economic mining using current technologies, depending on market price (USEIA 2011a, Table
15). For comparison, U.S. coal consumption was about 1.05 billion short tons in 2010 (Table
26). At current rates of consumption, the United States had 246 to 460 years of coal remaining.
In the United States, about 68.7 percent of coal was produced from surface mines in 2010 (Table
2). Surface mines typically recover 90 to 95 percent of available coal, while underground mines
recover 50 to 60 percent (Christman et al. 1980, 87).
The coal fuel cycle includes exploration, mining, processing, transportation, combustion, and
disposal of waste by-products, as illustrated in Figure 2.1.

COAL EXPLORATION

In the United States, where coal has been used since the early 1700s in Virginia, most exposed
outcrop seams of coal have been discovered and exploited, so exploration tends to require more
sophisticated technologies involving remote sensing or satellite imagery of geologic formations,
or drilling to verify suspected resources not yet proven. Consequently, the most significant envi-
ronmental costs from coal exploration often attend the construction of new roads in roadless areas,
and core drilling for samples. Regions where coal is found in the United States are illustrated in
Figure 2.2.
A coal exploration program occurs in stages, designed to give a geologist enough reliable
data to characterize the reserve and a mining engineer enough data to produce a plan for de-
velopment of a mine, extraction of the coal, and reclamation of the site. The initial stage of

Figure 2.1 The Coal Fuel Cycle

Mining and
reclamation

Exploration Processing

Waste disposal Combustion Transportation

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