Coal has become more expensive than natural gas or renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The markets are showing that alternative energy sources are coming down in price as the industry expands. Despite President Trump’s policies to encourage coal expansions, renewable energy capacity now exceeds coals:
Domestic coal production and use have dropped to their lowest levels in four decades, even though the economy is more than twice the size it was 40 years ago. And more coal-fired power plants have shut down so far during the Trump presidency than through all eight years of the Obama administration.
The culprit is the market. Coal, by far the most polluting of the major fossil fuels, is much more expensive than natural gas or renewable sources such as solar and wind, in part because of necessary anti-emissions regulations but mostly because alternative energy sources are coming down in price as the industry expands.
