Coal production plunges

U.S. coal production is at its lowest level in more than 30 decades. That was the word from the U.S. Energy Information Administration last week. First quarter production was 173 million tons. America's coal miners haven't recorded a quarterly production total that low since 1981. And the 17 percent decline in production between the first quarter of 2016 and the fourth quarter of 2015 represents the largest quarter-over-quarter decline since 1984. The Powder River Basin, as the country's most productive region, absorbed most of the hit...more