Energy Resources Program
The National Coal Resources Data System (NCRDS) State Cooperatives project supports a publicly available database of coal knowledge that encompasses the entire United States. State-level partnering for coal resource assessment and fundamental research of energy-bearing strata improves the ability of Federal, State and local planners to make optimum policy decisions in the areas of energy development, energy utilization, and land use. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology are engaged in a collaborative study to characterize the organic composition and thermal maturity of Upper Paleozoic coal-bearing strata from the Eastern Shelf of the Midland basin and from the Fort Worth basin, north-central Texas (USGS Open-File Report 2007-1312).
The USGS maintains cooperative agreements with 25 State geological agencies [PDF document] located in the 22 coal producing States (Click here to view a map containing each partner’s website). State agency geologists collect, evaluate, and correlate drill hole, mine, and outcrop data that are stored in the USGS NCRDS stratigraphic database. Cooperators also collect samples for geochemical, petrographic, and other analyses (CoalQual data), including coalbed methane (CBM). The stratigraphic, quality, Geographic Information System and other energy related data submitted by States through the cooperative projects provide support to numerous USGS and State coal energy research activities. Public requests for drill hole stratigraphic information from the national coal database are also served through this project. New five year State cooperative agreements began in 2010. (Click here to view a list of project titles and other information about the projects.)
Sue Tewalt Project Chief
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Current ongoing carbon sequestration research within the Energy Resources Program involves multiple collaborations with U.S. states. The U.S. map below shows some of the most recent collaborations, as well as the USGS contact information that corresponds to each state. Please note that many states are acting solely as collaborators, and are not under an official cooperative agreement:... [+]
The USGS was tasked by PL 110-140 Section 711, the 2007 Energy Independence Security Act, to measure the storage capacity for CO2 within the United States. Sect 711 (c) (2) stated that the Secretary of the Interior, through the USGS, shall "consult with State Geological surveys and other relevant entities to ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, the usefulness and success of the assessment". Therefore, the USGS started a cooperative agreement program with the states to work together to provide relevant data for this project. 33 State geologic surveys or universities entered into cooperative agreements with the Eastern Energy Resources Science Center, 9 regional geologists from the USGS work with the state cooperators to provide guidance for a large-scale picture of the data collection process.
The Geochemistry Laboratory supports Energy Team needs for inorganic and organic analysis and maintains a laboratory information system (LIMS) for geochemical data tracking and sample storage. The lab provides geochemical expertise and analytical support to Federal, State and County agencies, universities and foreign research organizations).
The U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resources Program has developed coal databases to monitor the location, quantity, and physical and chemical characteristics of U.S. coal and coal-related deposits.
Select any blue-colored state on the U.S. map to view the corresponding State geological agency website(s).
Energy Resources Program - Coal Quality
USGS National Geospatial Partnerships
National Geologic Map Database - "GEOLEX" Geologic Names Lexicon
Office of Surface Mining Mine Map Repository
U.S. Energy Information Administration
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Page Last Modified: Friday, October 05, 2012
http://www.lgs.lsu.edu/
http://energy.louisiana.edu/
http://www.uky.edu/KGS/
http://www.caer.uky.edu/
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/
http://www.geology.und.edu/