North Korea May Be Key to Trump's Coal Ambitions
North Korea May Be Key to Trump's Coal Ambitions
- Both cheap and abundant, coal is perhaps the least sexy of commodities -- unless you live in a coal-producing state like Wyoming or West Virginia, where the industry is a big employer. From a global perspective, it would be practically impossible to live without coal, which generates about 40 percent of the world’s heat and power.
By now, the drawbacks to coal are well-known. Burning the fuel emits about twice the amount of carbon dioxide as natural gas and 28 percent more pollutants than heating oil. As the world’s biggest source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to global warming, many nations are reducing coal consumption. Growth in global consumption stalled in 2014 for the first time since the 1990s before falling 15 percent in 2015. Last year, U.S. production fell 18 percent from 2015 to the lowest level since 1978, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.
- Both cheap and abundant, coal is perhaps the least sexy of commodities -- unless you live in a coal-producing state like Wyoming or West Virginia, where the industry is a big employer. From a global perspective, it would be practically impossible to live without coal, which generates about 40 percent of the world’s heat and power.
By now, the drawbacks to coal are well-known. Burning the fuel emits about twice the amount of carbon dioxide as natural gas and 28 percent more pollutants than heating oil. As the world’s biggest source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to global warming, many nations are reducing coal consumption. Growth in global consumption stalled in 2014 for the first time since the 1990s before falling 15 percent in 2015. Last year, U.S. production fell 18 percent from 2015 to the lowest level since 1978, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.