Coal has been the dominant source of electric power in the United States since the late 1800s, and still accounts for roughly half of the nation’s electricity supply. All but two states (Vermont and Rhode Island) have coal-fired power plants, and nine states use coal to generate at least 75 percent of their power (EIA 2010a).

However, many states that rely heavily on coal to produce electricity mine little or no coal themselves. As a result, they import coal by rail or barge from other states—and, increasingly, other nations. Even some states that mine substantial amounts of coal spend...

We can measure a state’s dependence on coal imports in many ways. The total cost of the coal each state imports, and its tonnage, are two obvious examples. However, those measures may not capture the dependence on imported coal of states with smaller populations and economies, and lower energy demand. Those two measures also do not reflect a state’s dependence on domestic versus overseas coal imports, which can have important ramifications depending on the stability of the exporting countries.

To evaluate both the absolute and relative dependence of states on annual coal imports, we analyzed six different measures:

To create...

The 38 states that were net importers of coal in 2008 share something in common: each has an abundance of local, clean energy resources that can help break its dependence on coal imports. In fact, every state in the nation has affordable opportunities to reduce its coal use by investing in energy efficiency and homegrown, renewable power sources such as wind, solar, and bioenergy. Effective state and federal polices can help hasten their deployment.

Investing in energy efficiency is a clean, fast way to meet consumers’ energy needs and enable them to save money while reducing the nation’s dependence on...

The cost of importing coal is a substantial but little-recognized drain on the economies of many states, with the annual outflow topping a billion dollars in 11 states in 2008. This drain has expanded considerably as coal mining has become more concentrated, coal prices have risen, and coal use in some places has grown.

Sending funds out of state to buy coal is a particular problem in the Southeast and Midwest—two regions that dominate our six measures of dependence on coal imports. But Northeast states, which are less dependent on coal overall, receive a surprisingly large share from other...