Just two years after the first coal was discovered in the United States in 1750 explorer Thomas
Walker discovered coal in what would become Kentucky and used it to heat his camp fire. Although
his discovery came in the Eastern Coalfield it would be another 150 years before commercial coal
production occurred there. In 1820 the first commercial coal mine in Kentucky opened in the Western
Coalfield in Muhlenberg County. In its first year the mine produced 328 tons of coal. By 1843 the
state produced 100,000 tons of coal produced, and by 1879 the state produced one million tons of
coal, all coming from the Western Coalfield.
In 1900 the first commercial coal was opened in the Eastern Coalfield in the community of Betsy
Lane in Floyd County. As of the year 2001 8.36 billion tons of coal have been extracted from Kentucky,
5.78 billion tons coming from the Eastern Coalfield and 2.58 billion tons coming from the Western
Coalfield. As of 2004 around 13% of total coal reserves have been extracted from the Western Coalfield,
although much of the remaining 87% of reserves are not reachable with current technology. Around 19%
of coal reserves have been extracted from the Eastern Coalfield .
While comparably higher in sulfur content, the Eastern Kentucky coal does have a higher carbon
density than Wyoming coal, so less of it has to be burned to produce the same amount of electricity,
thus producing less per capita carbon dioxide emissions. Eastern coal remains
widely used across the United States.