Cool facts for kids about coal

As National Energy Awareness Month draws to a close, we wanted to end our series on the event on a fun note.

If you haven’t explored the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Web site yet, it has a lot of great resources on energy, fossil fuels and electricity. One of our favorite sections is actually their Energy Kids’ page – it has a lot of surprising, off-the-wall facts that might be of interest to adults, too.

Here’s a few coal factoids from the site we thought you might like:

•The first record of coal in the U.S. was in 1673, found by French-Canadian explorer Louis Joliet along the Illinois River in northern Illinois.

•“Wheeling” is a term used to describe when electricity is moved through a local grid for use in another area.

•“Pig” is a scraping tool that is sent through a pipeline to clean it out.

•In 2008, each person in the U.S. used an average of 900,000 Btu per day. That’s the equivalent to the energy of 900,000 matches – or half a tank of gasoline.

•In 1816, Baltimore became the first city to light streets with gas made from coal.

•The first coal-generated power plant was developed by Thomas Edison in 1882 to make electricity for New York City’s household lights.

•About 58 percent of coal was produced west of the Mississippi River in 2008.

Now that you know a little more about coal, sign into Facebook and test your knowledge on affordable energy in our America’s Power^SM quiz. Let us know how you do!