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There are water consequences across every life cycle stage of coal‐fired electricity consumption, from production and processing to combustion, which have not been studied with regional specificity. There is often a spatial decoupling between where coal is produced and processed versus where it is combusted for power generation, complicating any analysis to estimate the life cycle water implications of electricity consumption. Furthermore, electricity generated by coal‐fired power plants can be consumed within its own balancing authority or exported to another balancing authority. This analysis spatially resolves the water consumed and water withdrawn for coal mining, coal preparation, and power plant cooling from 1) where the coal is mined to where the coal is burned for power production and 2) where the electricity is generated to where the electricity is consumed. Although the largest portion of coal consumed came from the Northern Great Plains province, coal from this region consumes the least amount of water for mining and preparation compared with other provinces. Water withdrawals for cooling power plants within each balancing authority are driven by cooling technology. Due to the interconnected grid, there can be differences between attributing water footprint at the producer level versus the consumer level.
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This content will become publicly available on June 5, 2026
This is Not a Coaltown: What Makes a Coal Community a ‘Coal community’?
Coal has long history in Ohio and across the Appalachian region (Crowell 1995History of Coal-Mining Industry in Ohio State of Ohio, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological survey). The industry has had a major impact on the communities in various ways from underground mining, surface mining, and coal- fired electricity generation (Keenan and Robert 2010An Ecopolitical System of Global Significance” in “Always A River: The Ohio River and the American Experience; Lobao et al 2016Rural Sociol.81343–86). As the U.S. moves away from coal, the mines and coal-fired power plants close, creating significant economic hardships for the communities that relied on the coal industry (Blaackeret al2012Organ. Environ.25385–401; Grubert 2012Energy Policy44174–84; Grubert 2020Science3701171–3; Haggertyet al2018Resour. Policy5769–80). Yet even after the industry has left, the residents of many towns still felt connected to coal and still consider themselves a ‘coal community’. Local history and industry messaging help re- enforce this idea, but those factors are part of a larger phenomenon around the growing and shifting image of coal (Bell and York 2010Rural Sociol.75111–43; Lewin 2019Soc. Probl.6651–68). This article examines how the image of coal has grown over time to be associated with many different values that coal community members identify with and want to attach to themselves. From hardworking coal miners, to town-defining power plant smokestacks, to hunting and fishing on reclaimed coal lands. The image of coal has come to represent a myriad of things that still represent these coal communities allowing them to interact with the image of coal long after the industry and tangible impact of coal has left. In analyzing interview data with fifty coal employees, local leaders and town residents from across four coal communities across southeast Ohio and northern West Virginia at varying stages of coal transition, this article uses concepts from postmodern social theory to illustrate the nature of how the meanings and identity of coal towns persist even after there is no longer coal. The findings advance our understanding of how coal-dependent communities continue to grapple with the societal transition away from coal energy and provide context for addressing the coal transition beyond economic factors.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1922666
- PAR ID:
- 10632360
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research: Energy
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2753-3751
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 025011
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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