Some good news for reducing GHG emissions in the USA. Due to the big drop in natural gas prices much of the coal burning fleet has been idled in favor of gas burners. We have dialed back coal consumption to the level during 1964. The previous low point is 1959 and maybe we will challenge that in 2024 or 2025. About 10% of our consumption is industrial and that continues to decrease.
What about before 1949? This chart was convenient and, although the units are a bit different, the historical consumption is visually apparent. Coal burning in the US started around 1850 and rose steadily until 1920 (I would guess that WW1 was a factor). After that coal consumption falls rapidly until 1935 when it rises again due to some minor historical event until the 1949 peak and then falls to a low during 1959. This is all due to industrial coal burning and we can see both petroleum and natural gas rise quickly and take the place of much coal consumption. The rise after 1959 is due entirely to electrical generation as every other sector continues to reduce coal usage.
This illustrates that coal was always an unpopular energy source except to coal mine owners. Coal has a much higher energy density than muscle or wood and that caused the rise. Numerous sectors moved away from coal when the alternatives of petroleum and natural gas became available. Examples in the transportation sector are ships and locomotives which switched as fast as possible. When the big naval fleets switched from coal to oil (for very practical reasons) the end became clear. These videos describe the situation far better than I can.
The next one shows that desperate attempts to keep coal relevant are not a new thing.
Coal was dirty and smokey. Railroad stations sometimes had nurses to deal with passengers who got stray cinders in their eyes or ears. The front passenger cars had to keep windows closed if the coal smoke was flowing straight back. Passenger ships had similar problems with coal smoke from the exhaust stacks (coal fired ships usually have much taller exhaust stacks than oil fired ships). Navy ships could be seen from over the horizon due to the thick, black smoke and don’t even think about coal fired aircraft carriers. Coal dust got everywhere and, when wet, formed a gooey paste that messed up machinery.
If you really want an earful ask any housewife from that time about keeping things clean with a coal furnace in the basement — and her husband who had to shovel coal every day in the winter (as my grandfathers did) and then clean out the ash and clinker. Going away for a trip in the winter? Better find someone reliable to keep the furnace fed or there will be a nasty surprise upon return. The air quality impact is legendary in any industrial city. Check out Pittsburgh in the 1950s when the temperature inversions happened. London had many die during coal smog events.
Coal was never the happy wonder fuel that it’s advocates claim and we don’t need to feel very bad about it going away. We are lucky to have better options.