Trump tried to save coal. Instead, coal capacity withdrawals doubled in 2018

In 2018, 14.3 gigawatts (GW) of coal capacity were withdrawn, compared to 7 GW in 2017. This is the second largest year in coal capacity removal since 2015, according to a new S & P Global Market Intelligence study. In 2015, a coal production capacity of 14.7 GW was withdrawn.

The Trump Administration has campaigned for its ability to save coal by reducing the rules of the Obama era. But in 2017, a report commissioned by the Ministry of Energy gave bad news to the Administration: environmental regulation is not what kills coal, it is the economy. According to a recent report from market research firm Lazard on the leveled cost of energy, building new renewable energy is currently less expensive than paying marginal costs for many coal-fired power plants. And innovations in hydraulic fracturing have reduced the cost of US natural gas to a much lower level than coal.

As the US coal fleet ages, utilities and energy companies are encouraged to replace older coal plants with natural gas and renewable energy.

According to S & P Global, an additional 23.1 GW of coal capacity is expected to be decommissioned between 2019 and 2024, for a total of 71.9 GW of retirements or retirements expected between 2014 and 2024 "The badysis reveals that about 245.6 GW of coal currently in operation in the United States," wrote S & P Global.

The Trump Administration has tried a number of solutions to strengthen coal, but none has yet succeeded. First, the DOE has attempted to argue that coal and nuclear power plants should be remunerated for their ability to store 90 days of fuel at the site. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the plan on the grounds that its logic was unconvincing.

Since then, the Trump administration has expressed interest in enforcing the Defense Production Act of 1950, a rule of war allowing the president to encourage purchases from US industries for reasons of national security, or Section 202 (c) of the Federal Power Act. to compel coal and nuclear power plants in trouble to remain open.

In October, Politico reported that White House staff had little political will.

Coal mine

If all these coal plants are closed, what happens in the coal mines? This industry was a bit luckier because of exports. While US coal plants are closing, coal plants are being built in other countries. The BBC recently reported that while China was trying to reduce its coal consumption, Chinese investors were injecting money into coal projects in other countries.

While coal production has declined sharply between 2014 and 2016, it has even increased in 2017, in part because of storms in Australia that have resulted in a significant drop in supply. But 2018 seems to continue the downward trend of 2016. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), coal tonnages from US mines in the first and second quarters were lower than those in the first and second quarters of the year. last year. Weekly data on coal production ending at the end of November show that coal production in the United States decreased by 4.2%.