The amount of coal produced in the United States is the lowest it’s been since the early 1980s as overall demand falters, the government said. “Coal production has declined because of increasingly challenging market conditions for coal producers,” a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Industrial and utility sectors are drawing more heavily on natural gas, while exports in the form of liquefied natural gas are drawing on domestic supplies. The EIA’s analysis finds that, through 2040, total U.S. production from shale gas and tight oil more than doubles to 29 trillion cubic feet, accounting for about 69 percent of total output of natural gas in the country. Generating electricity accounts for nearly all of […]