Coal in the United States

Coal mining in the United States is a major industry In 2016, US coal mining declined to 728.2 million short tons, down 37 percent from the peak production of 1,162,7 million tons in 2006. Coal mining employed 50,000 in 2016. In 2015, 896.9 million short tons of coal were mined in the United States, with an average price of $31.83 per short ton, worth $28.6 billion dollars.

Coal is mined in 25 states, 40% on public lands. Mined tonnage reached an all-time high of 1.06 Gt (1.17 billion short tons) in 2008, but by 2015 had declined to 986 million short tons. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2015 Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania produced about 639 millions of short tons (MST) representing 71% of total U.S. coal production in the United States. The U.S. is a net exporter of coal. U.S. coal exports, for which Europe is the largest customer, peaked in 2012, and have declined since. In 2015, the U.S. exported 7.0 percent of mined coal.

In 2005 coal provided approximately 50% of electricity in the United States and about 92 percent of coal consumption went to electricity generation. However, in 2016, the EIA calculated that coal would provide only 30% of electricity generation nationwide with natural gas providing 34%, nuclear, 19%, and renewables, 15%.

By January 2016, more than 25% of coal production was in bankruptcy in the United States. In 2015 four publicly-traded US coal companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, including Patriot Coal Corporation, Walter Energy, and the fourth-largest Alpha Natural Resources filed for bankruptcy protection. The second-largest producer Arch Coal and the largest producer Peabody Energy declared bankruptcy in 2016. By March 2017, the coal industry employed approximately 77,000 miners. 60,000 jobs have been lost since 2011.

Nationwide, US coal production peaked in 2008, and has declined since then, with 896 million short tons produced in 2015, representing a drop of 10.3% year-over-year, the lowest annual production level since 1986. The price of coal had dropped 50% since 2011. When Arch Coal filed for bankruptcy protection, it was $4.5 billion in debt.

1 short ton = 0.907184 metric tonnes

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