Electric power is often news for environmental journalists. A new database from the Energy Information Administration offers a hunting ground for stories relevant to today's changing energy scene.

The data is not all new — but it's newly useful. It includes in one place information about coal-burners, gas-burners, hydropower, wind, solar, and battery storage — which allows some useful comparisons in today's climate-conscious market.

The data are online and downloadable in spreadsheet format, so journalists can build their own projects.

The "Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory" data is online here, [2] with an overview here [3] and a query engine here. [4]

Data-driven journalists could use the data to examine trends in a particular state, in a particular region, or nationwide. How many coal-burning power plants are left in Ohio? Texas? The database makes it easy to find out.

Because the data is downloadable, journalists can match it up with other relevant data — on things like air pollution, coal ash, hydro relicensing, or weather conditions.