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�����Ƶ�No power producer wants that much money idly sitting around. But it has become much harder to burn that coal without losing money. Low gas prices, as well as increased solar and wind generation, have made coal-fired electricity less and less competitive,�����Ƶ� the IEEFA report said.

The EIA does not expect stockpiles to drop below 100 million tons until the end of this year, the IEEFA report said.

The thing about this report is that it shows an advantage to keeping coal as part of the national power generation mix. Other than nuclear, no other power source can store its fuel supply on site for a year or more before it�����Ƶ�s needed. Natural gas, hydropower and renewables cannot make that claim �����Ƶ� yet.

Data centers and other newer, large-scale power uses want clean electricity. They don�����Ƶ�t want to be associated with electricity that comes from polluting sources �����Ƶ� most of all from dirty coal. Yes, coal is dirty. It pollutes the ground, air and about everything it comes in contact with. But it still has a place in the nation�����Ƶ�s power grid.

The IEEFA report indicates that coal producers have sold too much coal to power plants in recent years, and that does not bode well for coal mines this year.

�����Ƶ�Right now, the biggest threat to coal production appears to be far too much coal sitting at coal plants,�����Ƶ� the IEEFA report concludes. �����Ƶ������Ƶ power producers try to bring those stockpiles down, they�����Ƶ�ll also need to cut their coal deliveries significantly. Yet the longer that mountain of coal persists, the deeper the delivery cuts and ultimately production cuts will have to be, as more coal plants fade away and more power comes online from newer, less-expensive energy sources.�����Ƶ�

Considering how fast electricity demand is increasing while renewables can�����Ƶ�t keep up and while small-scale nuclear struggles to be economically justifiable, in a few years large users could regret that so many coal-burning power plants were demolished when they were taken out of service.

NUMBERS: One caveat to the paragraphs above is that they deal with nation-level figures, not local-level. They don�����Ƶ�t say whether power plants in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky tend to have large stockpiles or small ones. Those numbers probably could be found or aggregated at the state level. That�����Ƶ�s a challenge I might decide to tackle soon.

KENTUCKY: Eastern Kentucky once was a region that mined a lot of coal, but it doesn�����Ƶ�t burn much of it anymore. Since Kentucky Power converted the Big Sandy Power Plant from coal to natural gas, the closest coal burning plant in Kentucky is at Maysville. There�����Ƶ�s another large coal burner at Ghent, on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Louisville.

There are four coal burners in counties that border Cabell County. Those are Amos in Putnam County and Mountaineer in Mason County, West Virginia, and Gavin and Kyger Creek in Gallia County, Ohio.