U.S. coal usage drops to 1979 level

WASHINGTON >> Americans are consuming less coal in 2018 than at any time since Jimmy Carter’s presidency, a federal report said Tuesday, as cheap natural gas and other rival sources of energy frustrate the Trump administration’s pledges to revive the U.S. coal industry.

A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected Tuesday that 2018 would see the lowest U.S. coal consumption since 1979, as well as the second-greatest number on record of coal-fired power plants shutting down.

The country’s electrical grid accounts for most of U.S. coal consumption. U.S. coal demand has been falling since 2007 in the face of competition from increasingly abundant and affordable natural gas and renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. Tougher pollution rules also have compelled some older, dirtier-burning coal plants to close rather than upgrade their equipment to trap more harmful coal emissions.

President Donald Trump has made bringing back the coal industry and abundant coal jobs a tenet of his administration. Federal government figures continue to show otherwise, however, as market forces inexorably tamp down coal demand.

The Energy Information Administration says coal consumption by the country’s power grid will end the year down 4 percent, and fall another 8 percent in 2019.

Appearing before the National Petroleum Council in Washington on Tuesday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry devoted much of his remarks to urging development of natural gas and petrochemical industries in Appalachian coal country. National gas production in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia has jumped from 2 percent of the nation’s total in 2008 to 27 percent last year, Perry said.