A significant uptick in US coal use this year, as higher natural gas prices make coal more attractive. Very easy for electricity generators to switch between gas and coal given that the plants are nowhere near full utilization rates. Also, it looks like global coal use will increase this year (including in China) so maybe a nasty surprise when the 2017 emissions numbers come out.
COLUMN-U.S. coal set for an upturn in 2017/18: Kemp"Higher gas prices will encourage power producers to limit gas consumption as much as possible this summer and run coal-fired power plants for more hours which should support a significant increase in coal demand"
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/07/reuters-america-column-us-coal-set-for-an-upturn-in-201718-kemp.htmlUS Coal Mining Up By 19% In 2017 — Is Trump Fulfilling His Campaign Promise?"US Department of Energy data as reviewed by The Associated Press reveals that the US mined a staggering 19% more coal in the first 5 months of 2017 than during the same period in 2016. This is especially surprising given the developments of last year, when US coal was clearly dwindling ...
First of all, the surge has not been confined to the US. Production in other coal behemoths like China and India has been going up too, after falling in 2016. Through May, mining increased by no less than 121 million tons in the 3 countries combined, amounting to a 6% overall annual growth rate compared to last year.
That is not to say that the revival in these three countries, together covering 60% of global coal production, is due to one and the same cause. For China, analysts point to its higher than expected economic growth and therefore electricity demand, as well as the relaxation of stringent policies aimed at cutting back oversupply on the Chinese coal market. For India, coal growth is part of a larger push for increasing access to a stable electricity supply to more of its inhabitants, as 260 million Indians still are not connected to the grid. So far, the surge has thus been driven by strong global energy demand and coal’s ability to supply that in a quick and artificially cheap way.
In the US, where coal growth was concentrated in the mining states of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, other factors have been at play as well, but those have little to do with Trump’s presidency. The combination of above-average energy demand resulting from a cold winter and spiking prices for coal’s substitute, natural gas, instigated the 19% mining increase. But with the USA’s large natural gas supplies, analysts don’t expect this to last much longer.
These recent developments do make clear that coal isn’t dead yet. When energy demand spikes, coal plants can quickly scale up electricity generation in response, preventing blackouts at low financial but high social costs by massively polluting the air and warming up the climate."
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/06/26/us-coal-mining-19-2017-trump-fulfilling-campaign-promise/