Regular readers of the site will recall we believe that for better or worse coal remains the energy of the future. And the Energy Department seems to agree.
Here's a startling truth from the Energy Department's new Annual Energy Outlook published yesterday: coal use in America is going nowhere.
Here are their projections through 2040:
Total U.S. coal consumption increases from 19.7 quadrillion Btu in 2011 to 20.4 quadrillion Btu in 2040, reflecting average growth of 0.1 percent per year. As with production, growth rates for coal consumption are uneven over the projection, with consumption declining by 2.7 percent per year from 2011 to 2016, but then increasing by 0.7 percent per year from 2016 to 2040.
Here's all that in graph form:
Meanwhile, exports growth will cause production to ramp up, the agency says: From 2016 to 2040, coal production grows at an average rate of 0.6 percent per year, from 20.2 quadrillion Btu to 23.5 quadrillion Btu.
SEE MORE: Stunning Photos Of The Energy Of The Future, COAL >
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