We hear a lot about renewables and natural gas these days, but the biggest energy source powering America's electricity is still coal.
The fossil fuel generated 39% of US electricity in 2014, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
And while power plants have gotten somewhat cleaner over the years — driven in part by tighter government regulations — they are still the largest source of carbon pollution in the US.
In 2013, electricity was responsible for 31% of carbon emissions, namely carbon dioxide and methane.
The entire US used 18,000 trillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of coal in 2013, according to the most recent data the EIA has available. That's 57 million BTU per person. (One BTU is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.)
So which states are using the most coal? This map shows how many BTUs of coal each state used per person in 2013:
Miraculously, Rhode Island and Vermont didn't get any of their energy from coal. Both states have switched their power plants to burn natural gas instead, closed coal-burning power plants, and relied more heavily on renewable energies like solar and hydropower.
The worst offenders, on the other hand, also happen to be some of the largest coal-producing states. Wyoming, West Virginia, and Kentucky produce the most coal, and all three consumed over 200 million BTU per capita.
Wyoming alone produced 39% of the country's 985,000 short tons of coal in 2013, according to the EIA. They also used more coal than any other state per capita — almost 894 million BTU. That in part because 88% of Wyoming's electricity is generated from coal.
The numbers on the map are per capita, since states of different populations use wildly different amounts of energy. They don't, however, tell you how much coal is used by individual residents, as coal-fired electricity is used on an industrial scale — not just in homes. In Wyoming, for example, only 9% of total energy use is in homes, while almost 60% goes to industry. In other states, the breakdown is almost exactly the opposite.
The state that used the most coal overall, in case you were wondering, was Texas at 1,597 trillion BTU. That was 8.8% of the US total.
With the massive amounts of carbon pollution that coal releases into the environment, being a top producer or consumer is not a title you want to have.
