Coal reserves are more evenly distributed than petroleum. Notice that North America has a significant percentage (24%) of the worlds coal reserves.
There are three major coal regions, Appalachia, Interior and Western. The Appalachia and Interior regions are dominated by bituminous coal. The Western region is characterized by lower rank subbituminous and lignite coals.
These graphs compare the coal of the three regions. The highest ranked coal, anthracite, is restricted to the Appalachia region. The graph is somewhat misleading because subbituminous has been lumped together with bituminous. If this distinction is made we can say that the coals of the Appalachia region are of higher rank than Western coals. In other words, less Appalachian coal needs to be burned to yield the same amount of energy as a Western coal. The sulfur content of Western coal is low, relative to coal from the Appalachia and Interior regions. Much of the Western coal occurs as very thick beds located near the surface so surface mining is more common in the Western region than in Appalachia and the Interior Region. Because of this distribution of coal, environmental legislation can result in favoring one region over another. As an example, the recent Clean Air Act restricts sulfur emissions. The easiest way for utility companies to comply was to burn low sulfur Western coal. The result was a loss of coal mining jobs in Appalachia (including Ohio) and an increase in jobs in the Western coal states.
The coal deposits of Ohio are Pennsylvanian in age and occur in the southeastern part of the state where Pennsylvanian rocks outcrop.