How much coal is there?
The amount of much coal that exists in the United States is difficult to estimate because it is buried underground.
Total resources is EIA's best estimate of the total amount of coal (including undiscovered coal) in the United States. Total resources are estimated to be about 3.9 trillion short tons.1 Total resources includes several categories of coal with various degrees of geologic assurance and data reliability.
The Demonstrated Reserve Base (DRB2) is the sum of coal in both measured and indicated resource categories of reliability. This represents 100% of the in-place coal that could be mined commercially at a given time. EIA estimates that the DRB in 2014 was 478.4 billion short tons.
Estimated recoverable reserves include only the coal that can be mined with today's mining technology, after considering accessibility constraints and recovery factors. EIA estimates there are 255.8 billion short tons of U.S. recoverable coal reserves, about 53% of the DRB.
Based on U.S. coal production in 2014 of about 1 billion short tons, the U.S. estimated recoverable coal reserves would last about 256 years. The actual number of years that those reserves will last depends on changes in production and reserves estimates.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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