How coal works

The document provides a comprehensive overview of the coal industry in the United States, detailing the transition from underground to surface mining and the shift toward low-sulfur coal. It highlights the severe ecological damage caused by mountaintop removal and the public health risks associated with coal combustion, including the emission of sulfur dioxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide. The guide also discusses the economic decline of coal due to the rise of natural gas and renewables, while noting the energy-intensive nature of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

• Coal electricity generation in the United States is declining, being replaced by natural gas and clean energy sources such as solar, wind, and energy efficiency, despite having provided over half of US electricity between 1981 and 2008.
• Mountaintop removal (MTR), practiced in eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and southern West Virginia, is identified as the most destructive mining method, causing irrevocable environmental impacts including the burial of streams and the displacement of forested ecosystems.
• Coal production in the US is highly concentrated; in 2016, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Wyoming together produced nearly 58 percent of all US coal, with Wyoming contributing 40 percent.
• The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act incentivized a shift toward low-sulfur coal to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, which favored western surface mines and inadvertently increased the use of mountaintop-removal mining in Central Appalachia.
• Coal-fired power plants are the primary source of CO2 emissions in the US power sector, representing 24 percent of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2016.
• Coal combustion is the leading source of both sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions in the United States, contributing to acid rain and neurotoxic contamination of waterways.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an emerging but energy-intensive technology; implementing it in pulverized coal plants is expected to reduce energy output by 25 percent or more.
• The coal industry's economic value has collapsed, with the top four coal companies' combined value dropping from $34 billion in 2011 to $150 million by 2016.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2017). How coal works. https://www.ucs.org/resources/how-coal-works

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. How coal works. 2017. https://www.ucs.org/resources/how-coal-works.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=How coal works |date=15 December 2017 |url=https://www.ucs.org/resources/how-coal-works |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2017how, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{How coal works}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2017}, month = dec, url = {https://www.ucs.org/resources/how-coal-works}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }