As users of electricity, we all use Colorado coal. Thirteen Colorado power plants annually consume 20 million tons of coal generating 35 million megawatt-hours of our electricity. This is about 62 percent of all electricity generated in Colorado annually. Most of the coal mined in Colorado is consumed here, and almost all of that amount is used to generate electricity. A few percent is used by industrial plants and homeowners.
Some 60 percent goes elsewhere-to 18 other states (see map at right) and to five foreign countries (Mexico, Israel, Japan, Korea,and Taiwan), where it is again used principally to generate electricity. Seven million tons is imported from Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal fields to fuel eastern Colorado power plants.