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Coal
Currently, over half of the electricity that heats our homes, lights our schools, and powers our businesses come from coal. That is more than from all other energy resources combined. Coal continues to be a fuel of choice for electricity generation because it is domestically abundant, affordable, and technology makes it possible to use coal to generate electricity and still meet today's stringent environmental standards.
Coal continues to be the least expensive fuel for power. Over the past 20 years, the price of coal increased about 4 percent while prices of crude oil rose 51 percent and natural gas jumped 211 percent. Technology has improved the efficiency of mining and transporting coal. The result has been affordable power for industry, businesses and homes.
Coal is very much a fuel for the future. The use of coal to generate electricity in the United States rose by over 188% between 1970 and 2003, and government energy experts predict that the use of electricity from coal will rise by another 25% by 2020.
While energy production has tripled since 1970, emissions from coal power plants have dropped more than 31 percent. The electric utility industry has invested more than $50 billion in environmental technology. Experts forecast that improving technology will result in coal-based energy that is nearly emissions-free within the next 20 years.
As our electricity demand continues to increase, coal will continue to be a fuel for America's future. The sheer volume of available coal reserves is an advantage that is hard to ignore. America has more than 274 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves - a 250-year supply based on current usage levels. That's 29 times the known U.S. reserves of natural gas and 54 times the known U.S. reserves of oil.
Securing America's energy future requires a balanced energy portfolio ... and electricity from coal remains an important part of our energy future.
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