20 Coal is used in nearly every state primarily to generate electricity Today many people dont actually see coal the way they did 100 years ago when it was widely used to heat homes But coal is working just as hard for America as it did in the past only in a diferent way O f the coal mined in the United States mor e than 90 per c ent is used to generate electricity at home and abr oad Coal consumption for electricity has more than doubled from less than 400 million tons annually in the early 1970s to a bout 800 m illion tons t oda y Coal is also used directly by industries and manufacturing plants especially those mak ing chemicals cement paper ceramics and various metal products to generate power and process steam It is still an important source of coke for the steel industry and coal byproducts serve as the basis for many da y t oda y it ems including linoleum synthetic rubber and insulation and vari ous compounds used in medications detergents perfumes and food preservatives At c on v entional po w er plants pulverized coal is burned to produce highpressure steam that drives an electric genera tor Some power plants are mine mouth facilities con structed near one or more mines that provide a convenient source of coal In general each ton of coal used b y a power plant generates about 2000 kilowatt hours of electricity A pound of coal supplies enough electricity to light mor e than 100 9 watt 40 w att equiv alent c ompact fuor esc ent light bulbs for about an hour Every American uses an average of 14 pounds of coal daily Aside from its abundance coals low price in relation to competing energy sources is one of its major ad vantages as a fuel for electricity generation EIA reports that coal average d 2 06 per million Btu in 20 18 natural gas on the other hand a v er ag ed 355 per million Btu C O AL and MINERAL USE A closer look at c oal c oal 28 natur al g as 34 nuclear 20 r ene w able other 11 P o w er Sect or Gener ation b y F uel 20 18 billion kWh EIA h y dr o 7 US Electric P o w er Sect or Net Gener ation 19 50 20 18 billion kWh 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 19 50 1960 19 7 0 1980 1990 2000 20 18 C oal Natur al Gas Nuclear Hy dr o R ene w able EIA Monthly Ener gy R e vie w F eb 20 20