By Kennedy Maize
President Trump’s push to revive U.S. coal is moving against market forces here and in the rest of the world. Coal’s accelerating decline is not the result of screaming greenies who want us all to freeze to death in caves but a result of economic fundamentals, with a sound environmental component. 
The U.S. decline is clear and unambiguous. According to DOE’s Energy Information Administration, in January 2001 coal accounted for 177 million megawatt hours of U.S. electric generation, half of total U.S. generation and ahead of all other sources of electricity.
By May 2026, coal generation had fallen to 49 million MWh, barely ahead of wind (41 MMWh) and solar (36 MMWh). Natural gas led the parade at 137 MMWh. The U.S. figure would be lower but for DOE’s orders keeping five large, uneconomical coal plants in service under dubious reliability claims.
U.S. coal production repeats the tale. In 2014, U.S. production totaled 1.2 billion tons. In 2024, that fell to 800 million tons.
China, the world’s largest coal producing country, saw electric generation from coal fall in the first half of this year to 49.7% of total electric output, according to the Xinhua official state news agency. Xinhua said this was “the first time its share has fallen below 50 percent and a new milestone in the country’s transition toward a green and low-carbon energy system, official data showed on Thursday.”
China’s National Energy Administration disclosed the data at a Beijing news conference. NEA official Xing Yiteng said. “The figures reflect the phased progress China has made in expanding non-fossil energy as a substitute for conventional fossil fuel generation.”
Oilprice.com commented, “China targets clean energy to account for 30% of its power generation by 2030, up from about 22% at present. While wind and solar are set to become the ‘mainstay’ of the electricity mix, coal will continue to grow and act increasingly as a flexible backstop to boost energy security.”
The Forbes “Current Climate” newsletter observed, “China may dominate global sales of clean energy technology, including solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles, but it’s also the planet’s top carbon emitter owing to a heavy reliance on coal. But that unhealthy addiction is starting to change.”
India, the second largest coal producer, and Australia, the fifth, in July as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Melbourne, issued a statement on coal focused on metallurgical coal used in steel making.
India has embarked on an ambitious project to increase its capacity to make steel. A report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis noted,”India’s reliance on metallurgical (met) coal imports is increasing due to its long pipeline of blast furnace projects. Australia is by far the world’s largest exporter.”
There’s a problem, according to IEEFA: “Australia’s export forecasts have been consistently revised downward. Actual exports have been in decline throughout this decade.” India should take another look at how to make steel: “India has an opportunity to address this energy security risk by manufacturing steel without coal.
“Scrap steel-based production will become an increasingly important steelmaking route for India. It can also target the use of domestically produced green hydrogen in direct reduced iron (DRI) production to reduce reliance on met coal and enhance energy security.”
Germany, which has gotten much attention for its retreat from, and possible return to, nuclear power, is also looking to exit coal. The euronews.com news service reports, “Germany is likely to wean itself off polluting coal ‘much sooner’ than originally planned, after hitting a major milestone in its clean energy transition.”
In 2000, Germany enacted a renewable energy law (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz 2023). Since then, coal-fired generation has declined and power from wind and solar has increased about 42%. London’s Energy Institute at the end of 2023 found that German wind and solar had surpassed coal in electrical generation, producing “more than half of domestic electricity use” in the country.
In Great Britain, where coal powered the 19th Century industrial revolution that made England the most powerful country in the world, oilprice.com reported, “In June, the Bank of England quietly announced that it would no longer be accepting bonds associated with coal operations for key loan arrangements. The ban will be enforced from October. It is the latest move to encourage a shift away from thermal coal for electricity production. The Bank of England said it would no longer be allowing commercial banks to use bonds linked to thermal coal as ‘collateral’ when borrowing money from the financial institution.”
The Quad Report, covering energy policy and politics