Per Wikipedia, for 2010, sources for electricity were:
Coal 30% Natural Gas 41.4% Nuclear 9.4% Hydro 8.7% Renewables 5% Wind, solar, biomass, Geothermal. Petroleum 5.5% Total 100% Since 2010, numerous coal fired plants have shut down for the sole reason that they cannot produce electricity in competition with gas until gas is at $4, and it is now at $2.80. I look at one directly across the lake, that shut down last month for that very reason.
Getting past that, I'm with you, coal is an intregal and very important part of the mix. But transportation costs to China and Europe are very high, and it takes oil fired shipping to get it there. They will buy our coal for as long as Russian gas is $15 per million BTU compared to our coal. See the Coal is Black Gold article posted earlier for prices.
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