U.S. coal exports rose 4.8% quarter to quarter and 16.2% year over year in the final three months of 2021. With global supplies tight, U.S. coal producers are tapping into demand from overseas. In the fourth quarter of 2021, coal producers shipped 20.2 million tons of coal through U.S. ports, up from both 19.3 million tons in the prior quarter and 17.4 million tons in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The top producing coal mines in the eastern U.S. recorded a surge in production volumes in 2021 as increased demand from power generators and steelmakers at home and abroad bounced off lows seen in the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three primary coal mining regions east of the Mississippi River — the Illinois Basin and the Central Appalachia and Northern Appalachia basins — all had a sharp rise in cumulative production from the 25 largest mines in each area for 2021 compared with 2020. The region with the most amount of production from its top mines, Northern Appalachia, produced 18.7% more coal from those mines than during the previous year while the top 25 mines in the metallurgical coal-focused Central Appalachia region ratcheted cumulative production up by 33.0%.
Production from the largest mining region in the country, the Powder River Basin, jumped 9.2% in 2021 compared with 2020, and Uinta Basin production rose 4.5% over the same period, according to an analysis from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Despite continuously rising demand for coal, the Biden administration's efforts have been focused on shifting away from the fossil fuel.
"There's been a lot of economic pain, particularly in fossil sectors like coal. We do not have, in this country, a set of systems and programs that support any dislocated workers in any sector," BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Jason Walsh said in a recent interview, emphasizing the need for the Build Back Better agenda.
"At the highest level, the Build Back Better Act includes a set of targeted investments that would allow coal communities and workers, and other energy communities and workers, to receive substantial economic gains from the transition to clean energy, whereas today, they have primarily experienced only the economic pain of that transition. In the absence of the Build Back Better Act, the status quo of more pain, little gain for these communities and workers will, I'm afraid, continue," Walsh explained.
Also during the week ended Feb. 18, U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairperson Joe Manchin signaled strong support for clean hydrogen tax credits, but the senator stopped short of indicating how the credits might become reality. Hydrogen tax credits are a small but key feature within the Biden administration's $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act, yet they have been hanging in the balance as Manchin, D-W.Va., and his Democratic colleagues have sparred over the bill's high price tag.
Upcoming coal event:
The World Coal Leaders Network: The 2022 conference will be held March 20-22 in Athens, Greece.
