Summary/Overview The National Coal Resource Assessment (NCRA) project was a multi-year effort by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Energy Program to identify, characterize, and assess the coal resources that will supply a major part of the Nation’s energy needs during the next few decades. The purpose of the was to (1) digitally assess selected coal beds and zones that will be the most important in the next few decades, (2) create publicly available stratigraphic, geochemical, and geographic information system (GIS) databases to answer a variety of questions to government, industry and public decision makers, and (3) provide interpretive geologic and geochemical information for the primary coal resources of the Nation. Five priority regions were assessed: the Appalachian Basin, Illinois Basin, Gulf Coast, Colorado Plateau, and Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. The NCRA was a cooperative effort between the USGS and a number
of State geological surveys in these coal-bearing regions.
A study of coal resources on Federal lands was also conducted.
Adequate energy supplies and the efficient use of those supplies are critical to the economic well being of a country. Affordable and reliable coal supplies are essential to the interests of our national and local policy makers. Policy makers require a range of information on the energy supply, as well as the economic and environmental issues associated with that energy source and its use. Formation of an effective national energy policy and development of energy resources requires that we understand the geology,
distribution, quality, and size of the national energy endowment.
The results of the USGS National Coal Resource Assessment are important because they provide impartial assessment of the Nation’s coal resources. The USGS NCRA provides the information essential to effectively use these energy resources by (1) evaluating and minimizing the environmental impacts related to the extraction, production, and use of energy resources, (2) managing Federal lands, (3) addressing issues of energy policy, energy strategy, reliable and cost effective energy supplies, land use management, environmental policy, economic projections, and human health policy, (4) determining the potential for coalbed gas (methane) resources and development of the United States, (5) determining the availability and recoverability of coal resources throughout the U.S., (6) determining potential areas of future coal and coalbed gas development, and (7) assessing the potential of coal to act as a storage
to sequester carbon dioxide.
Many of the resource areas studied in the NCRA have never had resources calculated for them. This project conducted regional geologic correlations on some of these coal beds and zones for the first time. In many regions, information on the distribution and quality of
remaining coal resources were obsolete until this assessment was
completed.
For the first time, the USGS National Coal Resource Assessment used digital databases and GIS for a national coal resource assessment.
All information used in this assessment was geographically
referenced and was stored, manipulated, and analyzed digitially.
The coal resource methodology used in the NCRA was based upon
that of Wood and others (1983).
Digital databases and GIS allow a wealth of information to be combined and compiled for a comprehensive look not only at the coal resource tonnage, but at coal quality, coal distribution, overburden, land and coal ownership, mineability, coalbed methane occurrence, hydrology, and more, and the relationships among these data. With this new approach to coal assessment came a refinement of our understanding of coal occurrence, the mineability and usability of coal, new stratigraphic correlations, and geologic and resource information across State boundaries. The digital databases compiled for each coal region are based upon detailed geology of the coal-bearing units. Reference: Wood, Gordon H., Jr., Kehn, Thomas M., Carter, M. Devereaux, and Culbertson, William C., 1983, Coal resource classification system of the U.S. Geological Survey: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 891, 65 p.
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