Natural gas could outpace coal as the country’s top electricity source for the first time in 2016, the federal government projected Wednesday.
The Energy Information Administration, the independent analysis arm of the Department of Energy, projects that by the end of the year natural gas will be the country’s top generator of electricity. While the two energy sources were about equal in 2015, it would mark a major change in the U.S. energy sector.
Natural gas first passed coal as the country’s top energy source on a monthly basis in April 2015. Both energy sources provided about one-third of the country’s electricity in 2015.
Natural gas’s rise would mark a major decline for coal, which has already bankrupted one major company and could bankrupt another, as Peabody Energy predicted Wednesday.
About a decade ago, coal generated about 50 percent of the country’s electricity. However, the boom in natural gas production in the United States combined with new regulations from President Obama have caused prices to plummet.
“Beyond the growing market share for natural gas-fired generation over the past decade, coal’s generation share has also been reduced by the growing market share of renewables other than hydroelectric power, especially wind and solar,” the report said. “Unlike the growth of natural gas-fired generation, which has largely been market-driven, increased use of non-hydro renewables has largely been driven by a combination of state and federal policies.”
