EIA - Fossil Fuel Use In Power Sector Lowest Since 1994; Coal Use Lowest Since 1982

[hatrack]

Total fossil fuel use in the power sector dropped to its lowest level since 1994, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported this week.

Equally remarkable, the EIA — the federal agency responsible for energy statistics — further notes that coal for electricity is at a 36-year low. It stated: “In 2017, coal consumption by the electric power sector reached its lowest level since 1982.”

Despite President Trump’s repeated promises to resuscitate the collapsing U.S. coal industry, the long-term trends cannot be reversed. Indeed, “the economics of coal have gotten worse” since Trump took office, as one leading energy analyst said earlier this month.

Already more coal capacity was retired in the first 45 days of 2018 than in any of the first three years of the Obama administration. And energy-industry analysts project a faster than expected pace of coal plant retirements in the coming years.

EDIT

https://thinkprogress.org/under-trump-coal-use-for-electricity-drops-to-36-year-low-2fec0f68a066/

[RainCaster]

1. Isn't this what Le Douche was promoting?

I guess that's called winning

[NNadir]

2. Apparently over at "ThinkProgress" natural gas is "renewable."

It isn't. Even for combined cycle plants natural gas releases approximately 500 grams of CO2 per kwh.

This makes it extremely dirty, unless you compare it to coal.

An alcoholic who puts away three six packs of beer a day instead of 5 glasses of scotch is neither sober nor healthy.

In the world at large, coal is the fastest growing source of primary energy in the 21st century.

IEA 2017 World Energy Outlook, Table 2.2 page 79

Of course, ThinkProgress is one of those bourgeois sites that has the myopic view that the United States is the world.

It isn't.