It seems that most financial stories these days must begin with “due to the coronavirus,” so here goes: due to the coronavirus, the use of coal in the production of electricity has plummeted so far this year. But while it is true that the virus-related shutdown has kneecapped energy consumption, the demise of coal as a viable energy source was well underway before the pandemic. COVID-19 just gave it a push.
And while the environmental and health benefits are manifest, the dramatic shift toward other sources was driven by a much more fundamental force: economics. The war on coal was instigated by activists, but it was ended by investors, and coal has been vanquished.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, coal-fired electricity generation in 2019 fell to the lowest level in 42 years. Cheaper and cleaner natural gas supplanted much of the demand, but renewables collectively surpassed coal for the first time. Less than one quarter of U.S. electricity came…
