The U.S Coal Sector: Recent and Continuing Challenges

The author concludes that U.S. coal production is unlikely to again rise from the ashes. This outlook reflects the combined effects of stagnant domestic electricity demand growth, advances in competing generation technologies offering low or no fuel costs and attractive capital costs, the risk of future emissions mitigation as a threat to existing coal-fired generation and new investment in coal and other emissions-intensive technologies, and unfavorable export market conditions. Source: Howard Gruenspecht