Coal in Their Stockings

Coal-fired power plants are shutting their doors at a record pace — and for the most part, nobody’s building new ones.

The latest round in the war on coal?  Not exactly.  The reality is that Americans’ lights will stay on just fine even as coal plants continue to close, thanks to a quiet revolution in energy efficiency and a boom time for cheap natural gas.  Throw in some stricter rules for older plants, and the result is a sharp drop in the economic viability of coal-fired power.

Since 2008, coal has dropped from nearly half the U.S. power market to about 37 percent. In the next several years, industry analysts say, hundreds of older coal-fired units will power down for good.

Coal in Their Stockings