U.S. coal exports continue to rise

Coal use in the US power market may have declined, but U.S. coal exports remain strong.

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The chart (Figure 1) shows a comparison of US net power generation in the years 2023 and 2013. The share of coal declined substantially, while the role of gas and renewables increased markedly. Hydro suffered because of the drought in recent years.

Those who are celebrating the decline of coal as an environmental win and how government policies can be used to fight climate change must awaken to two realities:

1. While no one can deny that strict government policies forced utilities to close certain coal-fired power plants, it was the abundance of cheap gas that played the bigger role.
2. As the US reduced its use of coal in power plants, it exported coal to the rest of the world.   Those who cheer the closure of US coal-fired power plants cannot reasonably invoke the fight against climate change while that coal is being burned somewhere else. Figure (2) below shows the increase in coal exports and how demand within the US declined.

Source: Anas Alhajji

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