US coal reserves on Govt lands total 957 bln tons

WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The United States has about 957 billion tons in coal reserves on federal lands, with more than half that amount held in an area that straddles Montana and Wyoming, the government said on Wednesday.

About 550 billion tons of coal is in the so-called Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, but the government is leasing only about 11.6 billion tons of the region's coal to mining companies.

The new coal reserve inventory, required by Congress under a 1995 energy law, came from the Departments of Interior, Energy and Agriculture.

More than half of the electricity consumed in the United States each year is produced from the 1.1 billion tons of coal used annually, according to the government report.

The United States is often called the Saudi Arabia of coal, having enough reserves to meet over 200 years of domestic coal demand.

However, burning coal produces large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. The United States is expected to take a tougher stand on climate change, which may make coal less desirable as a fuel.

The government is backing more research to develop cleaner-burning coal.