The largest coal producing state is Wyoming, which delivers coal to 24 states. The two major railroads at Wyoming's Powder River Basin, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, operate a joint line out of the mines that has reached its capacity of 64 trains per day or more than 300 million tons per year.
It will take several billion dollars to expand the capacity to ship coal where it is needed.
The economic slowdown was a blessing in disquise because it gave us breathing room to deal with the rapidly approaching limits to our ability to produce energy. If we fail to take advantage of that opportunity we are setting ourselves up for major problems.