I have noticed a significant reduction in train cars transporting coal to the east coast throughout this region. It gives me concern for the health of the railroad system that depends upon this market.
Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Mar 14, 2016 2:14 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:NY Times, "How Saudi Arabia Turned Its Greatest Weapon on Itself" I wrote: Once the writing is on the wall the price will collapse and never recover. I think it is starting to do that with coal, because natural gas, wind and solar have taken a large fraction of the coal market, and there is no reason to think they will not take the rest of it away over the next 30 years. U.S. coal consumption is down by 24% since 2001. See: Consumption for electricity generation for coal, annual Indexed to 2001 as percent http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/?src=home-f1#/topic/3?agg=1,0,2&fuel=8&geo=g&sec=o3g&linechart=ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-99.A~~~~&columnchart=ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-99.A~ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-1.A~ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-94.A~ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-96.A~ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-97.A&map=ELEC.CONS_EG.COW-US-99.A&freq=A&chartindexed=1&ctype=linechart<ype=pin&rtype=s&pin=&rse=0&maptype=0 Coal as a percent of electric power generation has fallen 29%. I do not see anything on the horizon that will reverse this trend. If things continue this way, coal will gradually be replaced with wind, solar and natural gas. See: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/?src=home-f1#/topic/0?agg=2,0,1&fuel=vvg&geo=g&sec=g&linechart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.A&columnchart=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.COW-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NG-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.NUC-US-99.A~ELEC.GEN.HYC-US-99.A&map=ELEC.GEN.ALL-US-99.A&freq=A&start=2001&end=2015&chartindexed=1&ctype=linechart<ype=pin&rtype=s&pin=&rse=0&maptype=0 - Jed
