Scott Precis

    The article goes over coal historical coal production in the United States and attempts to predict the future coal production as well as providing an estimate of possible coal production regardless of economic or political factors. (26) The author states:
"Using the recoverable reserves as an estimate of what is realistically available for production will yield a coal output of around 1400 Mt by 2030 through the rest of the century. This would require a massive development of the coal reserves in Montana, as they are the largest undeveloped reserves remaining for future exploitation. Unless this happens, US coal production could reach a peak around 2030."

The author states that the most likely source of the reduction in coal usage will be the introduction of alternatives such as nuclear and wind as the easy to reach coal is depleted and become price competitive.
http://www.tsl.uu.se/uhdsg/Publications/USA_Coal.pdf