Ohio coal production drops

State officials predict coal production will increase in coming years.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio coal production dropped 10 percent last year, after four years of increases, but the decline may be cyclical and linked to contract delivery dates, state and industry officials said.

Mines produced an estimated 22.7 million tons of coal in 2006, compared with 25.2 million tons in 2005, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ annual report on the state’s mining industry.

The value of coal mined in 2006 in Ohio was $618 million, down 1.2 percent from 2005. The leading coal-producing counties were Belmont, Monroe, Harrison and Tuscarawas in eastern Ohio.

State and industry officials indicated the dip could be cyclical and they predicted mining will increase in Ohio.

“It was really kind of surprising to me,” said Lanny Erdos, Natural Resources’ mine permit manager. “I fully expect over the next two to five years for production to go up.”

Erdos said new scrubbers and pollution filters to be installed at Ohio coal-burning power plants and a push to build at least two new plants in Ohio has encouraged businesses to propose opening new mines in the state.

Last year’s estimated decline wasn’t necessarily significant, said Mark R. Shanahan, executive director of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, which includes the Ohio Coal Development Office.

“A reduction by that amount could just be timing of contracts delivery or a thing like that,” he said Monday.

“My sense is that the future for Ohio coal is still very strong and bright and we need to look at it over probably a couple of years to see if there’s any sort of a trend.”

The National Mining Association trade group ranks Ohio 13th in coal production among the states and third in coal use behind Texas and Indiana. Wyoming ranks first in production and West Virginia second.

An underground mine that Gatling Ohio proposes for Meigs County in southern Ohio could produce as much as 2 million tons of coal annually, Erdos said. That mine would be near a 1,000-megawatt power plant that Columbus-based American Municipal Power wants to build near the Ohio River town of Letart Falls.

Another company, Ohio American Energy, wants to strip mine about 800 acres in Jefferson County in eastern Ohio, Erdos said.

Ohio’s sulfur-rich coal has long been linked to pollution, including acid rain. Tougher federal air-pollution limits prompted power companies and businesses to burn lower-sulfur coal from other states as a cheaper alternative to scrubbers. That pushed Ohio’s coal production down from a 1970 record of 55 million tons.