Natural gas expected to surpass coal in mix of fuel used for U.S. power generation in 2016

For decades, coal has been the dominant energy source for generating electricity in the United States. EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook is now forecasting that 2016 will be the first year that natural gas-fired generation exceeds coal generation in the United States on an annual basis. Natural gas generation first surpassed coal generation on a monthly basis in April 2015, and the generation shares for coal and natural gas were nearly identical in 2015, each providing about one-third of all electricity generation. More »