This report, Coal Data: A Reference, summarizes basic information on the mining and use of coal, an important source of energy in the US. This report is written for a general audience. The goal is to cover basic material and strike a reasonable compromise between overly generalized statements and detailed analyses. The section S̀̀upplemental Figures and Tables̀̀ contains statistics, graphs, maps, and other illustrations that show trends, patterns, geographic locations, and similar coal-related information. The section C̀̀oal Terminology and Related Information ̀̀provides additional information about terms mentioned in the text and introduces some new terms. The last edition of Coal Data: A Reference was published in 1991. The present edition contains updated data as well as expanded reviews and additional information. Added to the text are discussions of coal quality, coal prices, unions, and strikes. The appendix has been expanded to provide statistics on a variety of additional topics, such as: trends in coal production and royalties from Federal and Indian coal leases, hours worked and earnings for coal mine employment, railroad coal shipments and revenues, waterborne coal traffic, coal export loading terminals, utility coal combustion byproducts, and trace elements in coal. The information in this report has been gleaned mainly from the sources in the bibliography. The reader interested in going beyond the scope of this report should consult these sources. The statistics are largely from reports published by the Energy Information Administration.

The purpose of this report is to present information on the quality of some of the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) coal data. This report contains discussions of data on production, direct labor hours, recoverable reserves, and prices from 1983 through 1988. Chapter 2 of this report presents a summary of the EIA coal data collection and identifies other sources providing similar data. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on data on coal production and direct labor hours, respectively. Detailed comparisons with data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and State mining agencies are presented. Chapter 5 examines recoverable reserves. Included are internal comparisons as well as comparisons with other published reserve-related data, namely those of BXG, Inc. Chapter 6 describes how EIA obtains estimates of coal prices and discusses the variability in the prices caused by factors such as mine type, coal rank, and region. 5 figs., 5 tabs.