The intense competition for generation market share continues and the latest available EIA data shows a reversal of fortune for coal and gas in the power markets took place in January 2013.
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_es1b.
Coal provided 39.8% of the nation's electricity in January, while gas supplied 25.2%. The gas market share is down sharply from the 30% of power that gas provided for all of 2012, when coal provided 37% of the nation's electricity.
Compared to January, 2012, power generation from coal was up 7%, but natural gas generation was down 3% during January 2013. The gas price went up so gas generation went down and coal generation up. It's the simplicity and power of fuel pricing.
If the January 2013 market shares for coal and gas continue for the remainder of the year, coal will recapture about 50% of the market share that it lost in 2012. America's total carbon emissions will also likely increase, unless significant declines is emissions from oil offset increasing emissions from coal.
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