Federally owned coal and federal lands in the Colorado Plateau region

Federally owned coal plays a major role in the energy supply of the United States. About 1.1 billion tons of coal were produced in the United States in 1997 (U.S. Department of Energy, 1998). About 30 percent of that total, or about 330 million tons, came from Federal lands. Almost all of the Federal coal production is from Wyoming, Montana, and three States in the Colorado Plateau Region—Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.