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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 28, 2001

U.S. COAL PRODUCTION APPARENTLY SETS ALL-TIME RECORD IN JANUARY

Washington--U.S. coal production in January may have set an all-time record for one month at 101.5 million tons, according to preliminary statistics of the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA).

January 2001 production was 16 percent higher than the previous January and also 16 percent higher than production in December 2000. It also was the first time production topped 100 million tons in one month.

"The rise in coal production underscores an important fact about energy in the United States," said Jack Gerard, president and chief executive officer of the National Mining Association.

"When Americans need more electric power, the first choice of power generators is coal – affordable, reliable coal."

The EIA figures are based on factors that include railcar loadings. Much of January increase was in production in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, which chiefly supplies power producers in the West and Midwest.

The EIA's preliminary figures are reported in the Weekly Statistical Summary of the National Mining Association.

Preliminary statistics gathered by the electric power industry show a 5 percent increase in electricity output in the first four weeks of January 2001 over the same period of a year ago.

More than half of America’s electricity is generated from coal. Coal is our nation's most abundant energy resource, accounting for more than 90 percent of all fossil energy reserves and representing a secure supply for the next 250 years. On average, coal-fired power is less than one-half the cost of oil, and at current prices, coal power is about one-fifth the cost of natural gas. Modern technologies have made coal-fired generation increasingly clean.