Gas turbines can turn on and off quickly, a coal power plant cant. Gas can be piped easily, coal cant. If trains can't run, coal can't burn. Gas is not sulphurous, coal is generally 5% sulphur by weight. Gas burns cleaner than coal, hands down. Gas is plentiful and will likely be for a while.
Natural gas beats coal in everything, and now that it is cheap companies want to invest in it.
Using Coal without adjustments produces a lot of real pollution not to mention CO2. It is more difficult to mine and transport as well. Now perhaps in the far future we will use coal that has been converted to natural gas. Not to mention the "war on coal" being waged by the Obama administration.
Mainly because coal produces large amounts of carbon dioxide when it is burnt.
Natural gas also produces carbon dioxide, but less than coal. It is just a transitional fuel which also needs to be phased out.
Good question. Coal is a cheap and dependable source of energy. There are easily hundreds of years of reserves available.
Unfortunately, the shrill cries of the Global Warming Hippies has resulted in the waste of $Billions of Taxpayer dollars, for polluting, land-wasting, unreliable, wind and solar crap.
Natural Gas is the next best of the fossil fuels due to low cost and plentiful supply, but the Hippies are going after that, as well.
Gas is much more efficient and easily accessed. Coal is dirty and hard to extract. We have a super abundance of gas so why not go with the better fuel?
Gas is the perfect fuel for cooking and central heating, where it is very efficient, using it to produce electricity at 37% efficiency is so wasteful, when we could use coal instead for that.
- As a hydrocarbon, natural gas burns "cleaner" than coal.
- As part of a "no regrets" climate policy, gas produces much less CO2 emissions.
- The extraction of gas by new fracking techniques means that many more reserves are available making the cost go down.
- The mining of coal might be more environmentally damaging than fracking for gas.
- Perhaps transporting gas by pipeline is more efficient and "cleaner" than transporting coal by truck or rail.
While the first three answers are correct, I think the question was fishing for the fact that the U.S. dropped more in carbon dioxide emissions by developing and using more efficient gas than Europe did through the cosmetic Kyoto Protocol intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
EDIT: A thumbs down, eh. I hope that's on name recognition for YOUR sake. I didn't make this up, you know. Do NOT take my word for it, LOOK IT UP.
However, the shrill cries in the Global Warming Hippies has ended in the waste of $Billions involving Taxpayer dollars, for polluting, land-wasting, untrustworthy, wind and solar rubbish.
Well in Britain using coal for power generation would have been fantastic. It has 300 years supply, could be totally energy self sufficient (no mean feat today) and employ tens of thousands with all the knock on effects to local businesses, local communities and tax revenue. But after the miners strike this industry was purposely destroyed because it's union had real power to turn off the power.
So the miners and local communities were destroyed, power was privatized against the benefit of the people and is now owned by several foreign firms, the public has quite literally been mugged.
Now we're being mugged for green energy.
All in the name of something for which there is no scientific proof and no credible arguments.
2014, whoopee do, the warmest year ever; after we've adjusted the figures up and it made it a few hundredths of degree warmer than our previously adjusted years. So how much of that few hundredths can you assign to man? 3% isn't it ?
Where are the 50 million climate refugees, where is the water lapping over the roofs of 8 story buildings? where are the climate ghost cities predicted.
Scientifically and economically and politically agw supporters just don't add up and it's time to stop pandering to their insanity.
Because natural gas is cheaper, with all the fracking that is going on.
cost and flexibility. gas turbine driving a generator can be started in minutes to meet power demand. a coal plant is based on a boiler taking hours to set up.
To save the lives of thousands of people a year from pollution caused deaths. And to exhaust less CO2.
We should switch to nuclear power. Nuclear is safe and can provide all the power needed 24/7/365 without producing any co2.
coal is good so no decrease in usage
more sources
dirty vs clean energy.
