US power plants could run short of coal

Some U.S. power stations could run out of coal if a long hot summer pushes up demand at plants with already low stockpiles, the chief executive of the No. 2 U.S. coal producer said on Monday.

“I don’t think there’ll be blackouts but I think there’s a possibility in a hot summer that somebody could go very, very low on coal,” Arch Coal Inc. (ACI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Steven Leer told the Reuters Energy Summit. Arch fuels approximately 7 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.