WASHINGTON – The same day President Trump signed an executive order to increase U.S. coal production, the federal government issued a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing America’s coal production had tumbled over the past two decades.
In 2023 the United States produced 578 million short tons (MMst) of coal, or less than half of the amount produced in 2008 when U.S. coal production peaked, according to the EIA’s most recent Annual Coal Report.
The production decline is spread almost evenly across each type of coal and continued in 2024. Rising mining costs, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and competition from other sources of electric power generation have contributed to domestic coal production declines.
Coal production in Oklahoma in 2023 was 1,793 short tons of bituminous coal from just one location: a surface mine in Okmulgee County operated by Joshua Coal Co., EIA records reflect. That mine is temporarily closed, according to the latest data from the EIA.
U.S. power producers amassed a mountain of coal over the past two years that is sitting unused at their coal-fired power plants. The stockpile – approximately 138 million tons at the end of November 2024, according to the latest EIA estimate – is a headache for utilities and coal producers alike. Also, the EIA predicted stockpiles would remain high, staying well over 100 million tons throughout 2025. For comparison, 138 million tons is the same amount of coal that Appalachia is expected to produce this year.
Despite the decline in coal production, a report late last year showed that coal remains a strong source of fuel for generation plants to provide electricity to the states that com prise the Southwest Power Pool, which encompasses parts or all of 15 states, including Oklahoma.
The SPP report indicated that in the third quarter of 2024, coal was used more than wind. Natural gas fueled 33.9% of the electricity for Oklahoma and the 13 other states, followed by coal at 29.2%. Wind contributed 28.4%, nuclear 4.9%, and hydropower 3.0%.
SPP relies upon a diverse fleet of approximately 1,000 generating plants to produce energy to meet the demand for electricity in the region.
A Tulsa-based company, Alliance Resource Partners, is a diversified energy company that describes itself as “the second largest coal producer in the eastern United States.” Last year Alliance sold 33.3 million tons of coal and produced 32.2 million tons of coal, the company reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Alliance operates seven underground coal mining complexes that serve major domestic and international electric power generation markets.
The rank of coal depends on the depth at which coal deposits are buried. Deeper coal deposits have experienced more heat and pressure over time, providing those coals with higher heat capacity, higher carbon content, lower moisture, and fewer impurities. When ranked by their carbon content, the highest- ranking coal is anthracite, followed by bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite coal.
Coal mining companies produce bituminous coal primarily from the Appalachian and Illinois basins, both of which cover large areas in the eastern United States. Subbituminous coal is found in various parts of the western United States, especially in the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. Mining companies produce lignite coal across several parts of the Midwest, mostly in North Dakota and Texas.
Coal producers mine and sell the four ranks of coal mined in the United States primarily as thermal coal, which operators at power plants burn to produce steam for electricity generation. Bituminous coal, particularly from the Appalachia region, also has metallurgical characteristics, making it a critical raw material used in blast furnace steelmaking. In 2023, the U.S. exported 51 million short tons of bituminous coal as metallurgical coal.
Coal producers tend to sell subbituminous coal to coal-fired power plants across the United States, or, less often, export the coal to countries in Asia. Subbituminous coal’s low mining costs and relatively low heating value are partially offset by the high cost of transporting coal long distances, usually by rail. Coal producers tend to sell lignite almost exclusively to power generating plants located near mines. This proximity is a key economic factor given the low heat content of lignite coal.