1 year of electricity in the United States.
The EIA claims that the US has a whopping 270.7 Billion tons of known coal reserves, which costs (as of this writing) about $27.50 per ton for utilities. The EIA also estimates that the US will consume 1.78 billion tons by 2030.
Of course, by 2030, the math would indicate that more than $4.68 trillion of value would be pulled out of the ground, so maybe the coal barons could finance some alternative energy intitiatives!
Thank you to the US Department of Energy and the Energy Information Administration for a wealth of information on coal (it’s a weatlh of information):
