Retirement of Seven Coal-Fired Boilers Marks 50,000 Megawatts of U.S. Coal to Retire Since 2010

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12. But is that the same amount of ENERGY being exported?

The USA, being the second largest producer, already passed peak production of high quality coal in 1990 in the Appalachian and the Illinois basin. Production of sub-bituminous coal in Wyoming more than compensated for this decline in terms of volume and – according to its stated reserves – this trend can continue for another 10 to 15 years. However, due to the lower energy content of sub-bituminous coal, US coal production in terms of energy already peaked 5 years ago (2002)– it is unclear whether this trend can be reversed. Also specific productivity per miner has been declining since about 2000

http://www.energywatchgroup.org/fileadmin/global/pdf/EWG_Report_Coal_10-07-2007ms.pdf

Notice the two DECLINES, first is in term of ENERGY OUTPUT of the Coal mined. We are mining more coal by weight, but that coal is capable of producing less energy. One of the reason is that the richest coal in terms of energy is Anthracite, then Bituminous, then Sub-bituminous then Lignite, then "Slack" (Which is a Western PA term for something that did not have enough carbon in it to burn, so it was NOT coal, but had enough for water to come out black so it was useless to use as slate. That lead to the old saying "She was only a Coal miner's daughter, you could tell by the slack in her pants" i.e. None).

Bituminous is the coal from Pittsburgh to Illinois's, it is the coal that propelled the Industry Revolution in the 1800s and 1900s (till replaced by oil). It is much richer compared to Lignite, but also high in Sulfur (i.e. Acid Rain) but its ash absorbs Mercury.

Lignite in the Coal from the West. Reagan set the Sulfur limits so you did NOT need Scrubbers if Coal fired Generator switched to Sub-bituminous or Lignite, but had to install one if the coal fired generator stayed with Bituminous. Since the Eastern Bituminous mines tend to be UMWA mines, while the Sub-bituminous and Lignite mines in the West were not, you know which one Reagan's administration supported.

Energy output per ton of coal, per type of coal:
Anthracite: 30 MJ/kg
Bituminous coal: 18.8–29.3 MJ/kg
Subbituminous coal: 8.3–25 MJ/kg
Lignite: 5.5–14.3 MJ/kg

The Second decline, is the reduction in productivity by tonnage since 2000, i.e. it is taking MORE man hours to mine even less coal. i.e. the coal that remains is getting harder and harder to get out.

Side note: the paper referred to uses the term "Hard Coal" then it is normally used in the US. "Hard Coal" in the US is Anthracite, "Soft Coal" is Bituminous. Lignite was NOT given a name for it was NOT mined extensively till after WWII. In the attached Paper, Anthracite, Bituminous and Sub-bituminous are called "Hard coal", the term "Soft coal" is NOT used, but Lignite is used for all other types of coal.

Side note: No one has studied the effect that Lignite coal, which releases Mercury when it burns, replacement for Bituminous, which is known to absorbs Mercury when it burns (i.e. the switch from Bituminous to Lignite may be the reason for the increase in Autism over the last 30 years, for Autism mimics Mercury poisoning, and coal as the source of Mercury is a better explanation of Autism, if Autism is based on Mercury, then vaccination shots which contained Mercury).

Side Note: I remember during the Reagan Administration the fight over the Scrubbers on Coal fire plants (The scrubbers were design to remove Sulfur after the coal was burned so the Sulfur would NOT enter the atmosphere and cause Acid Rain). The debate was on how low was Reagan's Administration was going to set the sulfur limit. If they set it as low as environmentalists wanted it to be, it would be so low that no matter what coal the generator would use, they had to install Scrubbers. If that was the case, the Generators would have stayed with Eastern Bituminous coal for its higher energy content. On the other hand, if the sulfur limit was NOT set that low, then it would be cheaper to import Lignite coal from the West then install the Scrubbers. It was a big fight, and Western Lignite Coal won, and over the next 20 years you saw more and more Generators switch from Eastern to Western Coal. In New Florence Pa, a huge electric generator was build outside one of the largest mine in Western PA. The mine closed over then years ago and today the coal is imported from the West.