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Those trends are seen here in West Virginia, too. The John E. Amos Power Plant in Putnam County produced 29% less power from coal last year than it did in 2021, according to EIA data. In the process, the amount of coal it burned dropped about 27%, from 4.8 million tons to 3.5 million. AmosÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s production in the past two decades peaked in 2006, when it burned 8.1 million tons of coal.

The Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County produced 30% less power in 2023 than in 2021, according to EIA data.

The EIA listed three factors for coalÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s continuing decline:

Power plant operators have retired about 37 gigawatts, or 17% of the coal-fired fleet, since the beginning of 2021. But retiring and demolishing coal-fired units here in the Ohio Valley began more than a decade ago.

Natural gas-fired and solar generating capacity has increased.

ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œUtilities or grid managers generally select the lowest cost power available at a given point, which in recent years has usually been wind, solar, and natural gas rather than coal,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥� the EIA said. What the agency didnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t mention was how industries want cleaner sources of electricity. Local examples of that are the Toyota factory in Putnam County and the Nucor plant under construction in Mason County.

Compare and contrast this with whatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s going on in China.

ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œIn the past 10 years, more than 34 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity were added in China, bringing the countryÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s number of operating nuclear reactors to 55 with a total net capacity of 53.2 GW as of April 2024. An additional 23 reactors are under construction in China. The United States has the largest nuclear fleet, with 94 reactors, but it took nearly 40 years to add the same nuclear power capacity as China added in 10 years,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥� the EIA reported.

According to the EIA, China developed a long-term strategy in 2011 to add nuclear power to meet its electricity demand and to address environmental concerns. Nuclear power makes up only about 5% of ChinaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s power generation, compared to about 18% in the United States. Coal is still ChinaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s largest electricity generation source and is the source of much of the countryÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s air pollution. More carbon dioxide has been emitted in China than in any other country since 2006, according to the EIA.

This is one of those issues that needs to be discussed rationally on a national level. Unfortunately, how and where we get our electricity loses out to other topics on both sides of the political divide. We donÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t think about our grid until the power goes out, even if the demand for electricity is expected to increase in the next decade or two ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” the amount of time it takes to plan and build new power infrastructure.