https://www.theepochtimes.com/...yJ7RYX6GlBeU2wq6U%3D

More than half of all coal produced in the United States in 2024 was mined from federal lands.

There are enough coal resources in federally managed public lands across the United States to meet the country’s demand for at least 600 years at the current consumption rate, the Department of the Interior (DOI) said in a July 23 statement.

The assessment is based on a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report on coal resources in federal lands published on Thursday. According to the report, the conterminous United States has more than 355 billion short tons of available coal resources in federal lands. One short ton is equivalent to 2,000 pounds.

Alaska has an estimated 140 billion short tons and may have up to 5.5 trillion short tons when considering factors such as undiscovered resources.

As of 2024, there were a total of 34 coal mines in federal lands, which, combined, produced more than 261 million short tons of coal.

Wyoming has the highest number of coal mines, accounting for 14 of the 34 sites, and also produces the most coal from federal lands. This was followed by Colorado with six mines, North Dakota and Utah with four each, and Alabama and Montana with three each.

Of the 34, 29 mines produced thermal coal for electric power generation, three produced metallurgical coal for steelmaking, and one produced coal used in cement manufacturing. One mine remained idle.

More than 50 percent of all coal produced in the United States in 2024 was mined from federal lands.

Combined, the 34 mines have an estimated 4.2 billion short tons of reported coal reserves. More than 98 percent of these reported reserves are located west of the Mississippi River, mostly in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.

Of the 4.2 billion short tons of reported reserves, Wyoming accounts for 87 percent.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the statement that “American Energy Dominance is more important than ever.”

“And so is beautiful clean coal’s role in the production of electricity needed to fuel our future prosperity,” he said. “Thanks to the USGS’s rigorous and independent assessment, we’re better equipped to manage America’s vast public lands responsibly while supporting energy security and economic opportunity.”

Coal is a key focus of the Trump administration’s energy agenda. On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency.”

In the order, Trump directed the heads of various departments and agencies to use any lawful emergency authorities available to them to facilitate the identification, leasing, and production of domestic energy resources, including coal.

According to a June 4 statement from the Department of Energy, more than 15 coal plants have voluntarily reversed plans to prematurely shut down under the Trump administration. In 2025, more than 17 gigawatts of coal-powered generation was saved by preventing the premature closure of coal plants, the department said.

Coal Investments

Trump announced $700 million in federal investments on June 4 to support American coal plants and exports. The investments are expected to support 42 coal mines and more than 14,000 jobs.
About $485 million in funding will go to protecting more than a dozen existing coal plants in 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Environmental group The Sierra Club criticized the decision at the time. Patrick Drupp, climate policy director for the group, said in a statement that it was “reprehensible” that Trump was handing out taxpayer funds to “deadly and expensive” coal plants.

The group will do “everything” it can to counter this “reckless” handout, Drupp said.

According to data from The Sierra Club, exposure to air pollution from coal plants resulted in more than 6,500 deaths in the United States in 2024.

The Sierra Club also cited a November 2023 study that found that between 1999 and 2020, a total of 460,000 deaths in the United States were attributable to air pollutants from coal plants.

Under the Biden administration, new regulations were finalized in 2024 to restrict fossil fuel power plant carbon emissions.

One of the rules announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the time required existing coal-fired power plants to implement carbon-reducing technologies. This was expected to ensure that these facilities reduce 90 percent of their carbon pollution.

In June 2025, the Trump administration’s EPA issued a proposal to repeal greenhouse gas emission standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants. The agency said in the proposal that such emissions from plants “do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution.”

National Mining Association CEO Rich Nolan welcomed the Trump administration’s $700 million investment.

“Coal generation shields consumers from the impacts of volatile energy prices and supply challenges; it’s a vital piece of a sound energy strategy designed to meet the challenge of today’s [artificial intelligence-driven] demand growth in the context of the conflict in the Middle East,” Nolan said in a June 4 statement.

“The administration is supporting that strategy with decisive action at home to ensure that upgrades to existing energy assets are made, and at our ports to ensure that U.S. coal can answer the world’s needs.”

Yeah.. politicians can demonize coal all they want to but when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing its all we have other than nuclear.

Its going to be even more important when all the data centers come on line.

Sierra club!? see how many people die if the coal plants were shut off tommorow!!

Coal consumption in the US in now less than 1/3 of what it was in 2007, and there is no foreseeable end to that trend.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexpl...coal/use-of-coal.php

These reserves are best used for export to India, Turkey, or African countries where coal use continues to rise. China currently produces more than it uses, but perhaps not for long with their reliance on coal-powered energy and the explosion of data centers in that country. In other words, coal-based energy economies + booming energy consumption = potential export $ for US coal.

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According to data from The Sierra Club, exposure to air pollution from coal plants resulted in more than 6,500 deaths in the United States in 2024.

Okay Sierra Club, provide me the verified names of at least 6,500 US residents who died from air pollution due to coal plants in 2024. I'll wait. We'll work on 1999-2020 once you've finished 2024.

Not to digress from the thread topic but wanted to share. My grandfather, who has since passed 30 years ago, was a coal miner in W Va, as was my dad for a short period of time. My grandfather moved to Butler, TN after he retired from the coal mines and I remember visiting him and during the winter he heated his entire house with coal. It is such a wonderful memory, the smell of burning coal was so unique.

In 2-600 years, how about water resources. Especially in the southwest.

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Originally posted by sigarmsp226:
Not to digress from the thread topic but wanted to share. My grandfather, who has since passed 30 years ago, was a coal miner in W Va, as was my dad for a short period of time. My grandfather moved to Butler, TN after he retired from the coal mines and I remember visiting him and during the winter he heated his entire house with coal. It is such a wonderful memory, the smell of burning coal was so unique.

The first house I ever owned had a Godin coal stove in it. It took a while to learn how to fire it, but once I got it, it provided a long burn. And yes, it gave off a very unique and interesting smell.

quote:

Originally posted by sigarmsp226:
Not to digress from the thread topic but wanted to share. My grandfather, who has since passed 30 years ago, was a coal miner in W Va, as was my dad for a short period of time. My grandfather moved to Butler, TN after he retired from the coal mines and I remember visiting him and during the winter he heated his entire house with coal. It is such a wonderful memory, the smell of burning coal was so unique.

I grew up in Morgantown WV in the 1950's and 60's and have both fond and less than fond memory of coal. We heated our 1860 brick home with two coal fireplaces and 5 through the wall vented gas heaters which were in the kitchen and each of 4 bedrooms. The fireplaces were in the living room and large dining room which heated the central hall and stairway as well. In winter, as the only boy, my job was to bring in coal and take out the ashes, my father of course did as well. Our coal was dumped against a wall out from the house and I still remember breaking the ice and frozen coal pile with a pick in order to use a shovel to fill the buckets.

Keeping those two fireplaces burning hot required a lot of coal and seemingly produced almost as much ash to carry out which we spread over the long gravel driveway. I still have fond memories of my father and I as a child napping together in front of the living room fireplace on Sunday winter afternoons.

By that time most homes were heating with gas but quite a few like ours still burned coal. In addition, the WVU steam heating plants all burned coal as did the glass factories and other industrial facilities. Then there were the coke ovens just outside of town which partially burned coal then extinguished it producing coke for the steel mills just north of us in Pittsburgh. So coal smoke was always in the air especially from late fall to early spring, I don't know how poor our air quality was back then but it had to be bad.

Overloaded dump trucks of all types traveled both directions with their loads of coal which I never could understand. They were slow on the level and slowed to a crawl up the hills so therefore dotted passing lanes were everywhere other than on curves.

Ash or cinders which was plentiful was spread over the gravel roads in summer by the city. In winter cinders were spread over ALL snow and ice covered roads for traction so the roads and lower half of the vehicles were black.

That's all gone but living now in the neighboring county I still get the occasional whiff of burning coal from a distant neighbor in winter burning coal in his stove.

I don't even know what a coal fire smells like.

In 1957 we moved into a large and modern house that the previous owner was president of Peabody Coal Company. It was originally set up with a coal furnace and had coal bin loaded through a manhole in the garage. It must have at some point had an auger feeder from the bin to a coal furnace. The furnace was oil burning when we moved in, and later it was changed to burn natural gas.

All that was left of the coal system was black dust in the coal bin. The house wasn't but a few years old when we moved in, so the coal furnace wasn't used very long.

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Originally posted by Ronin101:
Yeah.. politicians can demonize coal all they want to but when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing its all we have other than nuclear.

Its going to be even more important when all the data centers come on line.

Sierra club!? see how many people die if the coal plants were shut off tommorow!!

I would not doubt that there is a lot of people in the Sierra club that want that exact thing to happen . from some of the ones i have talked to on the computer forums and facbook

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Originally posted by pbslinger:
I don't even know what a coal fire smells like.

In 1957 we moved into a large and modern house that the previous owner was president of Peabody Coal Company.

Was it on the Green River? Where Paradise lays?

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

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Originally posted by pbslinger:
I don't even know what a coal fire smells like.

In 1957 we moved into a large and modern house that the previous owner was president of Peabody Coal Company.

Was it on the Green River? Where Paradise lays?

Used to be, but Mr. Peabody's coal train done hauled it away!





We drove from Central KY to SE Missouri every Christmas to my grandparents, one of the treats was to look out the windows when we went down the WKY Parkway and look for the huge Bucyrus walking dragline coal excavator, that thing was massive!

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Originally posted by jaaron11:



These reserves are best used for export to India, Turkey, or African countries where coal use continues to rise.

Only if they offer up any rare earth products they have instead of sending it to China.

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Originally posted by Hamden106:
In 2-600 years, how about water resources. Especially in the southwest.

+1

This is what I’m more concerned about.

This summer we have had planes and helicopters flying mapping grids over northern Minnesota. The planes have a long boom extending from the tail with a pod housing all the scientific gadgetry that can supposedly map minerals under the ground. The helicopter has a large halo type of device hanging well below it that supposedly does the same thing but maps the bottom of the lake.

Minnesota has a wealth of riches in heavy metals and minerals but most mining of it never comes to fruition due to political and environmental pressures.

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Yeah.. politicians can demonize coal all they want to but when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing its all we have other than nuclear.

You’re forgetting natural gas.

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Yeah.. politicians can demonize coal all they want to but when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing its all we have other than nuclear.

I have a concern about all the nuclear waste that is building up.