"America’s coal industry has been in steady decline over the last decade, as natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency combined to replace the carbon dioxide-intense fuel and drive greenhouse gas emissions lower.

Yet coal continues to produce the lion’s share of greenhouse gas emissions associated with U.S. power production. Last year, coal was responsible for 22 percent of the country’s electricity generation but 60 percent of power-sector CO2 emissions, according to federal data.

The dynamic is owing in large part to a series of large coal plants that continue to churn out power and pump CO2 into the atmosphere. The 10 top CO2 emitters accounted for 9 percent of total U.S. power-sector emissions last year, according to EPA figures."

Benjamin Storrow reports for E&E News August 23, 2022. [2]