Bobby Magill reports that the amount of electricity generated using coal in the U.S. declined to its lowest level since at least 1970 in November, according to data released this week by the Energy Information Administration. Coal-fired power plants generated 29% of the U.S. electric power supply in November, dropping from nearly 35% in July and 39% for all of 2014.
The trend continues the long decline away from national dominance as the primary source of electricity in the U.S., EIA analyst Glenn McGrath. Coal generation is about as low as it has ever been, he said. It is never been that low for a particular month.
Although the EIA does not have data prior to the 1940s, McGrath said it is unlikely that coal has ever had a lower share of U.S. electric power generation. Coal dominance has been slipping since 2007 when it slowly began losing ground to natural gas thanks in part to the fracking boom in the U.S. Overall coal consumption dropped 24% between November 2014 and November 2015, while natural gas use spiked 21% during the same period, according to EIA data.
Coal used to generate electricity is the largest single source in the U.S. (and China, etc) of greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, representing roughly 30% of the nation emissions. Burning natural gas emits roughly half the carbon as burning coal. Methane leaking from natural gas wells and pipelines, however, is also harmful to the climate.
April 2015 marked a turning point for coal. CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants reached their lowest levels since 1988, and for the first time in history, power plants running on natural gas produced more electricity than those running on coal. That happened again in July, and since then, natural gas has been largest source of electricity in the U.S.
Although new regulations and federal climate policies, including the Clean Power Plan, have helped to push utilities toward natural gas, the main reason behind the shift is likely economic.
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