3 ms·

US coal 'biggest contributor by far' to rise in global emissions

45 points by softwaredoug 12d ago

toomuchtodo 12d ago
https://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coal-plant-map https://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coal-plant-map https://openenergyhub.ornl.gov/explore/dataset/eia-860-data/information/ https://openenergyhub.ornl.gov/explore/dataset/eia-860-data/... U.S. coal-fired generating capacity retired in 2025 was the least in 15 years - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67427 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67427 - April 13th, 2026 Planned retirements of U.S. coal-fired electric-generating capacity to increase in 2025 - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64604 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64604 - February 25, 2025 ~182GW of coal generation capacity remains to be retired, as of this comment, per EIA's Form EIA-860 generator dataset. The DOE was illegally mandating must run for the below coal generators, which should now be able to close due to a recent judicial ruling. Michigan coal plant [J.H. Campbell] set to close was illegally kept open - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666023 - September 2026 J.H. Campbell Units 1, 2 and 3 in Michigan (1,331 MW) Transalta Centralia Unit 2 in Washington (670 MW) R.M. Schahfer Units 17 and 18 in Indiana (722 MW) F.B. Culley Unit 2 in Indiana (90 MW) Craig Unit 1 in Colorado (427 MW)
- mc32 11d ago
  The increased demand in coal was, uhum, fueled primarily by data center energy demands. Along with coal, there was also an uptick in solar installations to meet DC energy needs. Given solar is cheaper, it stands to reason more solar will be built to meet DC energy demand.
  - pstuart 11d ago
    The increased use of coal was, uhum, dictated by the Trump administration. They are rabidly anti-renewals (too woke), and all in on fossil fuels. And loosening pollution rules "because AI needs more power" should lead to torches and pitchforks.
    - tialaramex 11d ago
      Coal (and gas) has "owners" and so that means more wealthy people to give Trump gold trinkets and praise. Trump can turn $1M of tax into $500k wealth for a Coal mine owner, that owner can give Trump $100k "donation" and praise The Donald as the greatest President in history. No downside. Well, not for Donald. I think the US is going to find itself with a bunch of stranded fossil fuel infrastructure (expensive but now worthless) and hyperinflation. Countries that ten years ago would see the US as an old ally which has fallen on hard times will instead see a traitor getting what was coming and turn a blind eye.
exabrial 11d ago
Take all of the ethanol subsidies and build nuclear, cover parking lots with solar. This is all we want.
- pstuart 11d ago
  Geothermal needs to enter the chat as well. I'm not anti-nuclear (if it's "done right"), but the economics of it are not very competitive. I think it's a technology we should not abandon (I'd love to see SMRs find a way to be viable and secure).
  - exabrial 11d ago
    I would love the idea geothermal, I'm just not aware of a lot of places in the US that can take advantage of it :/ Iceland on the other hand....
    - pstuart 11d ago
      There's a lot of development in leveraging fracking tech, Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), as well as some other wild shit like using masers: https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-newberry-volcano-marble-falls-hq-tour/ https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-newberry-volcano-marble-f... There's plenty of geothermal in the US to be tapped into, we just need to invest more in it. It then becomes the perfect baseload utility.
    - toomuchtodo 11d ago
      Enhanced geothermal systems could expand geothermal power generation - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67204 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67204 - February 19th, 2026 Map: https://www.nlr.gov/docs/libraries/gis/high-res-images/geothermal-identified-hydrothermal-and-egs.jpg https://www.nlr.gov/docs/libraries/gis/high-res-images/geoth...
- ViewTrick1002 11d ago
  Or build renewables and storage and get massively more energy, in a few years rather than in the 2040s. Not sure where this fixation on new nuclear comes from?
AuthAuth 11d ago
a drop in the bucket
- readthenotes1 11d ago
  They gave numbers for the increase in coal, but not the increase in CO2. It's hard to know what the impact is
  - AuthAuth 11d ago
    The impact is a drop in the bucket emissions wise.
    - karmakurtisaani 11d ago
      Basically almost any emission is a "drop in the bucket", and yet the bucket is somehow full.
      - tialaramex 11d ago
        The usual thing is to point at China because China is a huge place with a huge population and so as it industrialized it uses a lot of power and emits lots of CO2. This made plenty of sense ten years ago, when for a smaller country you could compare their entire CO2 footprint to China's annual growth and ask why bother. But increasingly while China is still huge these comparisons look worse for even medium-sized countries unless they're actually on a sensible path. China is growing more slowly and importantly mostly by using more renewables and electrifying, so the comparison looks more uncomfortable.
        karmakurtisaani 11d ago
        The comparison with China was never very good, as thinking in terms of emissions per country is useless. Per capita emissions would be much more relevant, and even then you'd have to take into account that Chinese factories produce their goods mainly for Western markets.
BiraIgnacio 11d ago
Well then > US scraps limits on emissions from coal and gas power plants https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmly433ke05vo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmly433ke05vo
fuckinpuppers 11d ago
The US loves winning!
skmurphy 11d ago
Selene Law: "Make no mistake: China is still by far the biggest CO2 emitter in the world” from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-countries-that-consume-the-most-coal/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-countries-that-consume-... top 10 coal burning nations: Consumption in exajoules ranked by 2025 use 1 China 92.24 55.6% 2 India 23.07 13.9% 3 US 8.73 5.3% 4 Indon 5.15 3.1% 5 Japan 4.36 2.6% 6 SA 3.65 2.2% 7 Russia 3.56 2.1% 8 S.Korea 2.86 1.7% 9 Vietnam 2.57 1.5% 10 Türkiye 1.79 1.1%
- TheCoelacanth 11d ago
  This is more about the trajectory. China is all-in on building renewables while the current US administration is pushing hard for more coal even when it doesn't make economic sense.
  - skmurphy 11d ago
    Shouldn't it be more about absolute impact? Tell me when you think the crossover occurs and US exceed Chinese use?
    - toomuchtodo 11d ago
      China's coal use has fallen below 50%, and at their current low carbon deployment rates, renewables share of total electricity generated increases ~10%/year. They account for half of all solar deployed globally. They potentially reach net zero as it relates to electricity generation in the next 5-10 years, and are expected to reach low carbon energy generation being ~70% of their total electrical generation in 2027. "If China maintains expansion at the 430-gigawatt-per-year level, installed wind and solar capacity would reach roughly 2,700 gigawatts by 2027. That would be more than five times the entire wind and solar capacity in the EU. Whether this value is realistic depends mainly on two factors: expansion of high-voltage transmission lines connecting generation and consumption regions, and political will to actually decommission the coal power plant fleet." The US could replace all of it's coal fired generation in a year if they went as fast as China (even accounting for capacity factor of solar vs coal). They choose not to. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capacity https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525501 (citations) HN Search: china batteries - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=china%20batteries&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

45 points by softwaredoug 12d ago

https://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coal-plant-map https://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coal-plant-map https://openenergyhub.ornl.gov/explore/dataset/eia-860-data/information/ https://openenergyhub.ornl.gov/explore/dataset/eia-860-data/... U.S. coal-fired generating capacity retired in 2025 was the least in 15 years - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67427 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67427 - April 13th, 2026 Planned retirements of U.S. coal-fired electric-generating capacity to increase in 2025 - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64604 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64604 - February 25, 2025 ~182GW of coal generation capacity remains to be retired, as of this comment, per EIA's Form EIA-860 generator dataset. The DOE was illegally mandating must run for the below coal generators, which should now be able to close due to a recent judicial ruling. Michigan coal plant [J.H. Campbell] set to close was illegally kept open - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666023 - September 2026 J.H. Campbell Units 1, 2 and 3 in Michigan (1,331 MW) Transalta Centralia Unit 2 in Washington (670 MW) R.M. Schahfer Units 17 and 18 in Indiana (722 MW) F.B. Culley Unit 2 in Indiana (90 MW) Craig Unit 1 in Colorado (427 MW)

mc32 11d ago
The increased demand in coal was, uhum, fueled primarily by data center energy demands. Along with coal, there was also an uptick in solar installations to meet DC energy needs. Given solar is cheaper, it stands to reason more solar will be built to meet DC energy demand.
- pstuart 11d ago
  The increased use of coal was, uhum, dictated by the Trump administration. They are rabidly anti-renewals (too woke), and all in on fossil fuels. And loosening pollution rules "because AI needs more power" should lead to torches and pitchforks.
  - tialaramex 11d ago
    Coal (and gas) has "owners" and so that means more wealthy people to give Trump gold trinkets and praise. Trump can turn $1M of tax into $500k wealth for a Coal mine owner, that owner can give Trump $100k "donation" and praise The Donald as the greatest President in history. No downside. Well, not for Donald. I think the US is going to find itself with a bunch of stranded fossil fuel infrastructure (expensive but now worthless) and hyperinflation. Countries that ten years ago would see the US as an old ally which has fallen on hard times will instead see a traitor getting what was coming and turn a blind eye.

exabrial 11d ago

Take all of the ethanol subsidies and build nuclear, cover parking lots with solar. This is all we want.

pstuart 11d ago
Geothermal needs to enter the chat as well. I'm not anti-nuclear (if it's "done right"), but the economics of it are not very competitive. I think it's a technology we should not abandon (I'd love to see SMRs find a way to be viable and secure).
- exabrial 11d ago
  I would love the idea geothermal, I'm just not aware of a lot of places in the US that can take advantage of it :/ Iceland on the other hand....
  - pstuart 11d ago
    There's a lot of development in leveraging fracking tech, Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), as well as some other wild shit like using masers: https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-newberry-volcano-marble-falls-hq-tour/ https://newatlas.com/energy/quaise-newberry-volcano-marble-f... There's plenty of geothermal in the US to be tapped into, we just need to invest more in it. It then becomes the perfect baseload utility.
  - toomuchtodo 11d ago
    Enhanced geothermal systems could expand geothermal power generation - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67204 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67204 - February 19th, 2026 Map: https://www.nlr.gov/docs/libraries/gis/high-res-images/geothermal-identified-hydrothermal-and-egs.jpg https://www.nlr.gov/docs/libraries/gis/high-res-images/geoth...
ViewTrick1002 11d ago
Or build renewables and storage and get massively more energy, in a few years rather than in the 2040s. Not sure where this fixation on new nuclear comes from?

AuthAuth 11d ago

a drop in the bucket

readthenotes1 11d ago
They gave numbers for the increase in coal, but not the increase in CO2. It's hard to know what the impact is
- AuthAuth 11d ago
  The impact is a drop in the bucket emissions wise.
  - karmakurtisaani 11d ago
    Basically almost any emission is a "drop in the bucket", and yet the bucket is somehow full.
    - tialaramex 11d ago
      The usual thing is to point at China because China is a huge place with a huge population and so as it industrialized it uses a lot of power and emits lots of CO2. This made plenty of sense ten years ago, when for a smaller country you could compare their entire CO2 footprint to China's annual growth and ask why bother. But increasingly while China is still huge these comparisons look worse for even medium-sized countries unless they're actually on a sensible path. China is growing more slowly and importantly mostly by using more renewables and electrifying, so the comparison looks more uncomfortable.
      - karmakurtisaani 11d ago
        The comparison with China was never very good, as thinking in terms of emissions per country is useless. Per capita emissions would be much more relevant, and even then you'd have to take into account that Chinese factories produce their goods mainly for Western markets.

BiraIgnacio 11d ago

Well then > US scraps limits on emissions from coal and gas power plants https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmly433ke05vo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmly433ke05vo

fuckinpuppers 11d ago

The US loves winning!

skmurphy 11d ago

Selene Law: "Make no mistake: China is still by far the biggest CO2 emitter in the world” from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-countries-that-consume-the-most-coal/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-countries-that-consume-... top 10 coal burning nations: Consumption in exajoules ranked by 2025 use 1 China 92.24 55.6% 2 India 23.07 13.9% 3 US 8.73 5.3% 4 Indon 5.15 3.1% 5 Japan 4.36 2.6% 6 SA 3.65 2.2% 7 Russia 3.56 2.1% 8 S.Korea 2.86 1.7% 9 Vietnam 2.57 1.5% 10 Türkiye 1.79 1.1%

TheCoelacanth 11d ago
This is more about the trajectory. China is all-in on building renewables while the current US administration is pushing hard for more coal even when it doesn't make economic sense.
- skmurphy 11d ago
  Shouldn't it be more about absolute impact? Tell me when you think the crossover occurs and US exceed Chinese use?
  - toomuchtodo 11d ago
    China's coal use has fallen below 50%, and at their current low carbon deployment rates, renewables share of total electricity generated increases ~10%/year. They account for half of all solar deployed globally. They potentially reach net zero as it relates to electricity generation in the next 5-10 years, and are expected to reach low carbon energy generation being ~70% of their total electrical generation in 2027. "If China maintains expansion at the 430-gigawatt-per-year level, installed wind and solar capacity would reach roughly 2,700 gigawatts by 2027. That would be more than five times the entire wind and solar capacity in the EU. Whether this value is realistic depends mainly on two factors: expansion of high-voltage transmission lines connecting generation and consumption regions, and political will to actually decommission the coal power plant fleet." The US could replace all of it's coal fired generation in a year if they went as fast as China (even accounting for capacity factor of solar vs coal). They choose not to. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capacity https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/installed-solar-pv-capaci... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525501 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525501 (citations) HN Search: china batteries - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=china%20batteries&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...