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Fact Sheet 120–99
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National Coal Quality Inventory (NaCQI) and U.S. Geological Survey Coal Quality Databases

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Coal will remain a very significant part of U.S. energy needs, even though there will continue to be concern about environmental impacts associated with its use. Currently, about 88 percent of U.S. coal production is used by electric utilities. The remaining 12 percent is either exported or used domestically for other industrial applications, such as coke for steel production.

Debates generated by the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act have highlighted the critical need for current, accurate, reliable, and comprehensive information on the quality of our domestic coal resources. To address this need the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and its member utilities, geological surveys in coal producing states, and the Department of Energy’s Federal Technology Center (FETC) have created the National Coal Quality Inventory (NaCQI). The overall objective of this partnership is to generate reliable, accurate, and accessible information on the quality of the major coal beds that will be mined in the U.S. during the next 20-30 years. The new, comprehensive coal-quality database will augment the existing coalquality database (COALQUAL) maintained by the USGS.

 

Version 1.0

Posted 1999

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