Coal Supplies Inventory

Clean Energy Action is researching coal supplies in the Power River Basin of Wyoming - an important source for Colorado. Coal is becoming increasingly inaccessible for economic reasons. Read our report released in February 2009 here.

It has often been stated that coal is “cheap and abundant” and it is assumed that it will stay that way for at least the next century. A careful analysis of existing information on coal supplies suggests that United States coal supplies are much more constrained than is widely understood. Indeed, it appears that with existing mines playing out over the next 10-20 years and future mine expansions highly uncertain, the planning horizon for new coal-powered generation is likely to be much shorter than previously thought.