Coal was formed from plant remains that were protected by water and mud against oxidization and biodegradation, thus trapping atmospheric carbon in the ground. Over time, the heat and pressure from the top layers helped the plant remains turn into what we today call coal.
The United States produces about 20%, or 1.1B tons of the world's coal supply—second only to China. With 400B tons of mineable reserves and 5.6T tons of un-mineable deep resources found in 38 states, it has about a 245-year supply of coal if it continues using coal at the same rate at which it uses coal today.
While most people think of coal as the largest source of fuel for the generation of electricity worldwide, the Company has proven that coal is the most abundant low-cost biomass for:
• Generating economical clean energy
• Cleaning water and the environment
• Safer food production
• Recycling military and industrial waste into fertilizer
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Providing energy security with domestic coal resources
The US has enormous coal resources and recoverable reserves. About 92% of the coal used in the US is for generating electricity, while the remainder is used as a basic energy source in industries such as steel, cement and paper. Figure 4 depicts the location of the world’s major recoverable coal reserves, while Figure 5 shows the location of the major US coal deposits
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