A continued viable domestic coal industry
Last week at the Platts Coal Properties & Investment conference in Fort Lauderdale,聽Fla.,聽Stephen Braverman, vice president聽for聽coal services, at DTE Coal Services predicted that 鈥淣o matter what, the U.S.聽is still going to have a viable domestic coal industry.鈥�
, Braverman said 鈥渢he end result of the slew of new regulations facing the industry will be bigger units that burn more coal.鈥�
Braverman said, he predicts a 4% drop in coal-fired generation by 2020, and that older, high-heat rate plants are more at risk of being shuttered.
But larger, more efficient coal-fired plants will continue to operate and provide baseload generation, Braverman said.
That鈥檚 why affordable, stable聽聽is essential to this country. We need this natural resource鈥攖here is more than two centuries of coal in the U.S.鈥攖o聽 keep the doors open at small businesses, power our hospitals and keep assembly lines running at manufacturing plants across the country.
America has depended on the reliable and abundant coal that comes from our land聽and powers聽our lives for more than a century. With the energy in America鈥檚 coal reserves being roughly equal to the world鈥檚 known oil reserves, it鈥檚 clear that coal should continue to be a reliable source of electricity for all of us.
