Energy from coal is back in the US. Greta cries

As reported by Oilprices , the energy produced by coal will increase for the first time in 2021 since 2014, All this is but the effect of the increase in gas prices linked to the current energy crisis and the bad policies of the sector in Western countries . I'm sorry Greta, but this year you'll have to cry.

This could be the last holiday for coal, as fossil fuel is still doomed to continued decline in the medium to long term, analysts say, amid the global drive for clean energy and the ESG trend that limits investment. and access to finance in the coal industry.

However, US fossil fuel producers, who have already benefited from growing demand for utilities this year, have at least another year of strong sales and high cash flows as natural gas prices persist into 2022 and even make the more expensive coal.

The U.S.'s annual coal-fired electricity production is set to increase this year for the first time since 2014, and the share of coal in the U.S. power generation mix is ​​set to rise to 23 percent in 2021 from 20 percent in 2020 with the rebound in electricity demand and the The price of natural gas delivered for electricity generators has more than doubled, according to EIA estimates .

The demand for coal is on the rise amid high natural gas prices
Rising coal demand and poor supply response have depleted U.S. coal stocks at their lowest levels since the early 1970s. While utilities scrambled to secure supplies before winter, U.S. coal prices are estimated to have reached their highest level since 2009 in November .

The rise of coal this year also highlights a key challenge for the transition to green energy: The shift to cleaner energy won't happen overnight, and keeping the lights on in America still needs to. a lot of coal and natural gas, regardless of long-term policies. Coal could become the “Cash cow”, the profit cow of the transition precisely because it no longer requires huge investments, but it is only a question of obtaining liquidity .

The United States still gets more than 60 percent of its electricity generation from fossil fuels, of which 40 percent was natural gas and 20 percent coal in 2020. This year, the EIA estimates the gas share will drop to one. averaged 36 percent from 39 percent last year, but the coal share rises 3 percent to 23 percent. The share of renewables, including hydroelectricity, is expected to remain broadly unchanged from the year at 20%.

“ That joke comes to mind, that whoever says Christmas can't come a little early. We now have three quarters of our best financial and operational performance of the year since we went public, ”said Randy Atkins, CEO of Ramaco Resources, a large coal producer last month commenting on the third quarter results.

In the long run the industry is doomed to decline, but let's face it, in the long run we will all be dead. Meanwhile, in the short term, it brings home some profits, largely due to the bad transition planning made by Western political amateurs.

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The article Back to energy from coal in the USA. Greta cries comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/torna-lenergia-dal-carbone-negli-usa-greta-piange/ on Mon, 06 Dec 2021 10:00:19 +0000.