Coal stockpiles at U.S. power plants fell 4.6 percent this week from last week.

The news release is quoted as saying:

Total coal inventory was 4.1 percent greater the first week of 2010 than the same week of 2009, continuing recent weeks' steep decline in year-over-year surplus. Power generators had 164.2 million tons of coal on hand as of Monday, down from 172.1 million tons last Monday but up from 157.7 million tons the same week last year.

Click here to access the entire press release ^[1]