Winter’s here, and coal is ready to provide warmth

We are not even halfway through October and already winter has made its presence felt in some parts of the country. Over the weekend, snow and freezing temperatures crept over the Mountain West and the Midwest, postponing a baseball playoff game in Denver and blanketing roads at Yellowstone National Park. On Sunday, the high temperature in Des Moines, Iowa, was 41 degrees -- breaking the 1909 record of 46 degrees.

It’s getting downright cold out there, but the dependability of coal will help millions of Americans stay warm no matter how long that winter feeling lasts.

According to our friend Venita McCellon-Allen, a utilities executive, “We have to be able to meet our customer’s needs in the middle of the night or on the hottest summer day. Coal will help us do that regardless of what Mother Nature is doing.”

In fact, the Energy Information Administration has estimated that winter heating expenses for electricity will be $20 less over the season, according to its annual winter assessment.

To find out just how much you depend on coal-generated electricity at home, check out the Power House – an interactive feature on AmericasPower.org that will allow you to see how much energy it takes to power a modern home.

And as I wrote in a recent guest column for the Des Moines Register, we’re going to need every form of electricity generation that we can think of to meet our growing demand – and that includes coal.