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Page added on May 2, 2016
Coal Demand Has Fallen in Nearly Every State Since 2007
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Power Plant Operations Report Form EIA-923
Consumption of steam coal used for electricity generation in the U.S. electric power sector fell 29% from its peak of 1,045 million short tons (MMst) in 2007 to an estimated 739 MMst in 2015. Consumption fell in nearly every state, rising only in Nebraska and Alaska over that period. States with the largest declines were concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast, with six states in these regions accounting for nearly half of the national decline. Smaller declines in power sector coal consumption occurred in Wyoming, North Dakota, and Montana, all in the Rocky Mountain region.
In the United States, 97% of all steam coal is used to generate electricity. With little or no growth in electricity sales in most states between 2007 and 2015, coal use for electricity generation is closely related to coal’s share of total generation. The price and availability of fuels other than coal have had a major effect on coal consumption since 2007. Increased supply of natural gas and a resulting natural gas price decline spurred increases in natural gas-fired power generation in several states, generally at the expense of coal-fired generation. Electricity generation from wind and solar sources also increased significantly over this period, driven by a combination of federal tax credits, state-level mandates, and technology improvements.
Coal use in the electric power sector decreased in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana by 49%, 44%, and 37%, respectively, between 2007 and 2015. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, increased production of natural gas from the nearby Utica and Marcellus shale plays resulted in more and relatively less expensive natural gas being available to power plants in these states. Indiana’s legislature created a voluntary energy portfolio standard, which took effect in 2012, encouraging electric utilities and retail power generators to generate more electricity from renewable fuels and nuclear, as well as from any natural gas generators that displace existing coal-fired generation. Combined natural gas consumption at electric power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana increased from 219 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2007 to 777 Bcf in 2015. Coal consumption from these three states fell from 176 MMst to 100 MMst over the same period.
In the Southeast, coal consumption in Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama in 2015 was half the level it was in 2007. Electric power plants in these states increased their natural gas consumption from 338 Bcf to 1,021 Bcf, and they reduced their coal consumption from 110 MMst to 56 MMst.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Power Plant Operations Report Form EIA-923. Note: Values reflect coal receipts by electric power plants rather than coal consumption. Differences in receipts and consumption are relatively small and attributable to changes in stockpile levels.
The decline in power sector coal consumption across these six states was often accompanied by shifts in coal supply sources. In general, imports and receipts of coal from distant sources decreased the most. Indiana and Ohio received much less coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana in 2015 than in 2007. In both Georgia and North Carolina, the largest decline in coal receipts came from Central Appalachian coal, which was partially offset by higher receipts of Illinois Basin coal. Alabama’s imports of coal (mostly from Colombia) dropped over this period.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual. Note: Idaho, Vermont, Rhode Island, and District of Columbia have no coal consumption in the power sector.
Principal contributor: Brian Park
EIA
19 Comments on "Coal Demand Has Fallen in Nearly Every State Since 2007"
dave thompson on Mon, 2nd May 2016 12:56 pm
Yea great nat gas has taken over for now, the fracking bust is upon us. when the gas gets expensive again, the coal comes back. SHUT IT DOWN!
rockman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 1:21 pm
With respect to Texas it wasn’t due only to switching to NG: wind power now produces half as much electricity in the state as we get from coal. Texas now actually produces about 20% more electricity from wind then it does nuclear.
And a big factor that explains the support wind has gotten from the state govt: industrial consumption represents 50% of the e- consumption in the state. residential is less then 15%.
Wind power is good for our growing business sector.
PracticalMaina on Mon, 2nd May 2016 1:34 pm
Maine kicked some ass, even with a barely literate Republican governor.
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 2:22 pm
Wind power is good for our growing cancer sector.
End stage cancer.
Last week’s flooding did a number on Houston-area roads
http://abc13.com/weather/last-weeks-flooding-did-a-number-on-houston-area-roads/1312312/
Highway 6 still closed 2 weeks after floods
“To give you some perspective — when it’s open — Highway 6 sees about 100,000 cars a day. Side streets normally see about 30,000.
So the addition of all those vehicles along these side streets is making things difficult. Engineers expect some roads to remain closed for the next several weeks until water subsides.”
http://www.khou.com/traffic/highway-6-still-closed-2-weeks-after-floods-1/164264879
As the cancer gnaws away at the backbone of the industrial dreamland, happy tumor spreaders like rockman proudly tells his starry eyed peakoil.com fanboys how his daughter is going to college in a few years. Sure rockman she will have a normal life – the new normal – over by 30. So what is she going into? Texas’s burgeoning field of disaster recovery/cancer clean up or oil industry PR/cancer promotion? Tell yourself all your plans are going to work out cancer daddy. Blindest fucking fool on here. So much for “higher education”.
Maybe invest some of your cancer money into a first rate water filtration system, so you and yours don’t have to drink the toxic water you poisoned to earn your blood money. That’s just for the plebs.
Texas floods washing fracking chemicals, crude oil into rivers
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/05/texas-floods-washing-fracking-chemicals-crude-oil-into-rivers.html/
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 2:36 pm
Proud fracking cancer daddy’s like rockman don’t give a fuck about millions of other “fellow” Americans. He lives a long ways away from their troubles. As long as he has the house and cars and texass status and little daughter gets to go to upscale college then ……… fuck all y’all. You don’t rate.
Maybe one day there will be a news story about how some furious local lost it. Showed up on the fracking site with a shotgun and an AR-15 and went postal. LMAO just thinking about it. Or maybe it will be a hit squad of disenfranchised millennial eco warrior types – holy shit has their rhetoric ever turned violent in the last couple of years.
Man-made earthquakes put millions at risk, report says
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/03/28/man-made-earthquakes-fracking/82338854/
7 million at risk this year from man-made earthquakes, USGS says
http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2016/03/7_million_at_risk_this_year_fr.html
rockman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 3:13 pm
And the ape man still can’t grasp a rather simple concept: the Rockman couldn’t be happier if not another well were frac’d in the US. Actually that’s not accurate: if no well were ever frac’d in the past the Rockman would be even happier. But, again, with a childlike bumper sticker view of the world he’ll never get it. LOL.
geopressure on Mon, 2nd May 2016 3:52 pm
Apneaman; fracking fluids are not that toxic…
The Saudis & Russians paid to trick environmentalist into believing that they were toxic… Then the oil companies had no idea what was even in them, so it made them look bad, but in the end, it’s really just water, sand, guar powder for the most part…
I would happily drink a cup of it for you, if it were available…
—
But I would love to see fracking outlawed as well!!!
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 4:03 pm
rockman, still clinging to your myth of benign warm N fuzzy energy provider eh? Like if it was any other way, if the living arrangements were anything other than growth obsessed pedal to the metal pig at the trough clown show that they are, the world would have fallen apart overnight. Yep, there was no alternative, so there was no reason to try. In fact, because the commoners are unable to grasp these facts like the fossil fuel industries they, for the good of all humanity, had to take matters into their own hands. Which is why billions and billions had to be spent on a decades long global disinformation and intimidation campaign that has penetrated every aspect of society. There is simply no way any changes could have been made to buy some time. The way we live is the only possible way to live. Thanks rockman for your single minded selfless service to humanity. No one would ever dare, in any way, to consider your $400,000 a year payment as in anyway influencing you in a manner unbecoming a hero like you. You and your cancer buddies are only in it for the betterment of Man. Same as the Koch’s. Sorry about the lying kid’s – it was for your own good.
Personally, I think we would have always continued to use oil, but could have slowed AGW down by many decades and even centuries if not for you lying fuckers. In those decades or centuries who knows if other things may have came about to slow the damage as well?
We’ll never know.
We’ll never know, because you and your oily masters took that choice away with your malfeasance and corruption. You poisoned everything.
That’s what you are guilty of that the rest of us are not.
I don’t care how much someone’s personal energy foot print is. There is no way a slow down could have even been attempted without everyone or at least a majority on board and legislation and societal changes in place.
Corrupting politicians and lying to the public made that impossible.
Y’all guilty as sin and everyone knows it.
If there is a hell (there’s not) you would all be boiled in a lake of crude+condensate forever.
Your theft, theft of a chance – theft of a future, is the very worst kind of all.
Too late now.
J-Gav on Mon, 2nd May 2016 4:09 pm
Could we keep the personal stuff minimal? I mean, I’m no moderator here, but I do like to read your different points of view – without the ad hominem attacks …
Question on the fracking conconction – Is it certain that the recipe is the same everywhere it’s used? Until there’s a clear answer on that, I won’t be drinking any of it …
Second remark – Oklahoma and earthquakes. Looks like a pretty clear connection – as in ‘slam dunk.’ And Oklahoma is doubtless not alone, so I’m like you Geopressure, let’s get it over with.
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 4:36 pm
J-Gav what about the visitors who like the personal stuff and the ad hominem attacks? What about them? Don’t their feelings count too? C’mon J-Gav, lighten up buddy. Do it for the world. Do it for the children.
https://youtu.be/M9BNoNFKCBI?t=22
geopressure on Mon, 2nd May 2016 5:08 pm
Reciepe is pretty close to the same… The guys who mix the stuff get lungs full it & it never seems to hurt them… NaOH is the only thing that makes it a little dangerous, but once diluted in the water, it’s not going to hurt you…
But all service companies have their own recipes, basically the same stuff with different labels on the bags…
makati1 on Mon, 2nd May 2016 5:57 pm
J-Gav doesn’t live in the real world where people have feelings and opinions that differ from his and have the freedom to express them. If something offends you, either suck it up, move to another site, or give what was said some thought (not emotion) and reply.
Freedom of expression is becoming illegal in America. The poor little Americans don’t like being told they are greedy, immoral, uneducated, arrogant, narrow-minded, bigoted, obese, drugged up, spoiled children whose feeling get hurt when those facts get pointed out. Too bad. Perhaps Russia/China needs to “bring democracy” to them like the Us did to Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Libya, and now Syria? It would be fitting and much needed.
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 6:16 pm
geo, it’s like asbestos insulation eh? If it don’t kill you withing 5 minutes, you’ll be fine for life. You’d make a fine occupational health and safety officer.
Davy on Mon, 2nd May 2016 6:22 pm
Makati Bill, JGav lives in Paris not the US.
Davy on Mon, 2nd May 2016 6:26 pm
Makati Bill, you are one of the primary reasons this site has been poisoned with hate, resentment, and fake agendas.
Boat on Mon, 2nd May 2016 6:40 pm
Energy will always be used in massive amounts. Coal is down for only two reasons. Regulations for cleaner air and fracking gave the US an abundance of cheap nat gas that works with renewables. When renewables are cheaper than nat gas look for the cleaner air regulations to hit. No sense getting all excited about the process. It is what it is.
apneaman on Mon, 2nd May 2016 7:10 pm
Mak, keep up the good work.
makati1 on Mon, 2nd May 2016 7:29 pm
Ap, I only say it like I think it is. So, yes, I will “keep up the good work” as long as possible. Thanks.
I love to tramp on exceptionalist toes, or kick them in the backside when necessary. Reminds them what the real world is like, and it ain’t the fictional America they live in. It’s a 2X4 in the face if you are not paying attention.
Kenz300 on Tue, 3rd May 2016 8:01 am
Fossil fuels are the past……wind and solar are the future………
Think grandpa vs teen agers………land lines vs cell phones……
Climate change is real……….. if the world is to have any hope of dealing with the impact of climate change we need to stop building any more coal fired power plants and begin shutting down the oldest and dirtiest ones..