Surging energy demand bodes well for midwestern mines

Last year, U.S. coal operators produced 527.5 million tons, which was a 20-million-ton increase over 2024. Of that, 268.3 million tons originated from western states, followed by 158.5 million tons from Appalachia and 82.5 million tons from the “Interior,” which is predominantly the Illinois Basin. The mines in the Illinois Basin, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky, produce a high-Btu, high sulfur coal, mostly from underground operations.

The 14 major mines in the Illinois Basin produced 61 million tons in 2025, according to the latest data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). That represents 74% of the production from the Interior. It’s also an increase over the 59.7 million tons they produced in 2024.

Coal Production in the Illinois Basin

Coal production from all three states grew in 2025. The mines in Illinois produced 33.8 million tons compared to 33.3 million tons in 2024. The mines in western Kentucky produced 14.1 million tons in 2025, compared to 13.7 million tons in 2024. Indiana’s coal production grew to 13.1 million tons from 12.8 million tons in 2024.

Eight companies control the major mines in the Illinois Basin, including Alliance Resource Partners (26 million tons), Foresight Energy (14.9 million tons), Prairie States Energy (6.3 million tons), Peabody Energy (5.6 million tons), Knight Hawk Coal (4.2 million tons) and Sunrise Coal (4 million tons). The major Illinois Basin mines are mostly room-and-pillar mines (nine) cutting coal with continuous miners (CMs). Four of the operations are longwall mines and one is an open-pit mine. Interestingly, Alliance’s River View mine, a room-and-pillar operation, produced more coal than the top Illinois Basin longwall operations. Much of that has to do with coal sales and marketing than actual production capacity.

Total coal production from the three Foresight Energy longwall mines declined to 14.9 million tons in 2025 from 15.4 million tons in 2024. Much of that decline can be attributed to the Deer Run mine, where production dipped from more than 1 million tons
in Q2 2025 to 683,000 tons in Q3 2025 and then 88,500 tons in Q4 2025.

As 2026 begins, Alliance reported that productivity at its River View and Gibson South mines helped offset some of the impact of the planned extended longwall move at the Hamilton County mine.

Production from Sunrise Coal in Indiana increased to 4 million tons in 2025 from 3.5 million tons in 2024. Hallador Energy Co., which owns Sunrise Coal and the Merom power plant, has signed long term power supply agreements that have secured the future for the Oaktown No. 1 mine. The company sold substantially two-thirds of Merom’s 540 megawatts (MW)  for the next 14 years and reported strong pricing signals for its remaining unsold capacity.

Indiana and Kentucky have demonstrated a more sensible approach to future coal-fired power generation, while Illinois has not. Indiana has a dozen utility-scale coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of approximately 14,212 MW. Coal remains the primary electricity source in the state, generating about 45% of Indiana’s power. Indiana has 17 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves.

As this edition was going to press, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued emergency orders to keep two Indiana coal plants operational to ensure Americans in the Midwest region of the United States have continued access to affordable, reliable, and secure electricity. The orders direct the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), CenterPoint Energy, and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) to take all measures necessary to ensure specified generation units at both the R.M. Schahfer and F.B. Culley generating stations in Indiana are available to operate. Certain generation units at the coal plants were scheduled to shut down at the end of 2025.

The R.M. Schahfer Generating Station, located in Jasper County and operated by NIPSCO has two gas-fired units and two coal-fired units totaling 1,105 MW. Located in Warrick County and operated by CenterPoint Energy, the F.B. Culley Generating Station has two coal-fired units with a total of 369 MW of generating capacity.

The orders will minimize electricity costs and the risk of unnecessary blackouts for the American people. Since the Department of Energy’s (DOE) original orders were issued on December 23, 2025, the coal plants have proven critical to MISO’s operations, operating during periods of high energy demand and low levels of intermittent energy production, including during Winter Storm Fern.

“Taking reliable generation off the grid compromises energy reliability and needlessly raises energy costs for Americans,” Wright said. “During peak summer demand, Midwesterners deserve continued access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy to power and cool their homes.”

The Trump Administration has been on a mission to save coal-fired power plants from premature retirement by reversing plans to shut them down. In 2025, more than 17 GW of coal-power electricity generation were saved.

As outlined in DOE’s Resource Adequacy Report, power outages could increase by 100 times by 2030 if the U.S. continues to take reliable power offline. The emergency conditions that led to the issuance of the original orders persist.

MISO’s service area continues to face emergency conditions both in the near and long term. The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) cautioned in its 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment that, “projected resource additions do not keep pace with escalating demand forecasts and announced generator retirements.” Additionally, NERC notes in its 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment that load growth in the MISO region, “is expected to accelerate in 2027 and beyond, which may lead to increased reliability risk in the future if resource additions cannot keep pace with rising load forecasts.”

These orders are in effect beginning on June 22, 2026, through September 19, 2026.

Kentucky operates nine coal-fired power plants, and four of them are in western Kentucky. While Kentucky burns 20 million tons of coal per year to generate electricity, much of that coal originates from out of state.

Illinois has eight utility scale, coal-fired power plants generating a total of 7,416 MW, including: Powerton (1,786 MW), Prairie State Generating Station (1,766 MW), Kincaid Generation (1,319 MW), Baldwin Energy Complex (1,260 MW), Newton (617 MW), Archer Daniels Midland Decatur (335 MW), Dallman (230 MW), and Marion (99 MW).

Illinois has the second largest amount of coal reserves in the USA. Ironically, the state’s general assembly passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), also wrongly referred to as the Clean Energy Jobs Act, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed it into law on September 15, 2021. Among other things, CEJA directs the Illinois EPA to oversee the phase-out of fossil fuel-fired electrical generation units by 2040.