The US can’t make cheap electricity. But we can sure export it to other countries who burn it dirtier than we do. Brilliant.
Coal production increased by 45 million short tons in 2017 in response to high demand for U.S. coal exports, according to a report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The EIA sees met-coal exports staying strong through this year and next, but with market conditions returning to normal, thermal-coal exports will find it harder to compete with Australia and Indonesia, which are much closer to the Asian markets.
So the EIA’s forecast shows coal production overall to decline by 14 million short tons in 2018 and by 18 million short tons in 2019, as export demand is expected to slow and natural gas prices are expected to stay below $3/MMBtu (per 1 million British thermal units) during much of the forecast period, which contributes to less coal use for electricity generation, according to the EIA report.EIA expects the share of U.S. total utility-scale electricity generation from natural gas to rise from 32 percent in 2017 to 33 percent in 2018 and to 34 percent in 2019 as a result of low natural gas prices.