Coal* is the fuel of choice for electricity production in North America because it’s cheap. Just dig it up out of the ground, toss it on a freight car, use a conveyor belt to feed it into a furnace, and you have heat which can be converted into electricity.

The main drawback of coal is that it is dirty. Since it’s basically a type of flammable dirt, you end up with lots of crap in the air, and lots of soot at the end of the process. For these reasons, many utilities have been trying to phase out their coal power plants. But it’s hard to argue with the economics of a cheap fuel and a power plant that’s already built. Advances in environmental technologies (like scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators), as well as new furnace designs, have improved the situation, but it is still basically a dirty method for creating power.

Below are some statistics for coal-based power generation in North America:

The United States produced 1,094 million short tons (Mmst) of coal in 1999, down 2.1% from record production in 1998 of 1,118 Mmst, largely as a result of a large drop in coal exports plus lower electric power generation demand for coal due to unseasonably mild weather and to displacement by nuclear power. Of its total coal production, the United States consumed 1,041 Mmst and exported (net) 49 Mmst. Wyoming was by far the leading U.S. coal-producing state in 1999 (with 31% of the U.S. total), followed by West Virginia (14%) and Kentucky (10%). Appalachia accounted for about 39% of total U.S. production, mainly from underground mines. Nearly all remaining U.S. coal production came from states west of the Mississippi River, overwhelmingly from surface mines. For the country as a whole in 1998, 57% of coal produced was bituminous, 35% subbituminous, and 8% lignite (brown coal).

Around 80,000 miners work in the $20 billion U.S. coal industry, down from a peak of 700,000 in 1923, when U.S. coal production was half what it is today.

U.S. coal demand is expected to reach 1,069.5 Mmst in 2000, up 29 Mmst (2.8%) from 1999 U.S. coal demand. Electric utilities account for the vast majority (around 90%) of U.S. coal consumption, with independent power producers (IPPs) and manufacturing taking nearly all the rest. This pattern is expected to continue through 2020 at least, with coal maintaining a fuel cost advantage over oil and natural gas, and coal demand reaching 1,279 Mmst. As sulfur dioxide emissions standards are tightened (in 2000, for instance, Phase 2 of CAAA takes effect), the share of low-sulfur coal in the U.S. coal consumption mix is expected to increase. In 1999, low and medium-sulfur coals had approximately the same share of the U.S. coal market, with high-sulfur coal far behind.

The United States is the third largest coal exporter in the world, behind Australia and South Africa. U.S. coal exports declined sharply in every world region in 1999, including the major markets of Europe, Canada, Asia, and Brazil. U.S. coal exports have fallen precipitously since 1995 due mainly to lower world coal prices and increased competition from other coal-producing nations (i.e., Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, Venezuela, Colombia), plus natural gas -- especially in Europe.
(from the Energy Information Administration)

Let’s take a look at Nuclear fuels.