COMMENTARY
As we near the end of 2016 and reflect on troubled times in the coal industry, let’s mark the milestone of a decade ago when U.S. coal production was reaching its peak.
In 2006, U.S. coal production hit a record level of 1.16 billion short tons, a record that was broken just two years later.
Production has been sliding ever since. The past couple of years might be appropriately termed a free fall.
Even in 2006, when production was booming, there were signs of trouble ahead, according to that year’s report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Coal consumption actually declined in 2006. In particular, consumption decreased in the electric power sector by 1.1 percent.
The drop in coal consumption was also aided by a drop in the price of natural gas, now coal’s chief competitor.
And although national coal productivity was going great guns, that wasn’t the story in Appalachia, where coal production decreased by 6.8 million short tons.
Coal producers would throw a party if they had those numbers now.
The most recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, released in November, is dark indeed. Don’t leave it out where the children can find it.
The report actually goes over information from 2015 and singles out West Virginia as a particularly low performer with production of 95.6 million short tons – a drop of almost 15 percent from the prior year.
The nation’s coal production dropped more than 10 percent year-over-year to fewer than 900 million short tons, the lowest annual production level since 1986.
There’s probably no bigger cheerleader for coal in West Virginia than Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy.
Even Murray says don’t expect coal to make a complete comeback. On Talkline, he said the damage has been done.
And, Murray said he has been on the phone with President-elect Donald Trump, cautioning to not overstate a rebound.
“I’ve cautioned Mr. Trump to not over commit to miners and to America as to what he can do in bringing the coal industry back,” Murray said this week.
West Virginia coal producers have some hope for a rebound if they get a break from federal regulatory pressure. But getting back to the record levels a decade ago might take more than that.
It might take a time machine.