Soaring European wholesale gas prices are encouraging more utilities to switch to carbon-heavy coal to generate electricity just as the region tries to wean nations off the polluting fuel. Although European coal and carbon prices have also jumped in recent months, they have lagged the spike in gas prices, causing short-term marginal costs to shift in favor of using coal to generate electricity. Benchmark carbon permit prices under the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) have almost doubled since the start of the year while European coal futures are more than twice as high. Wholesale Dutch gas prices, however, are almost four times higher than at the start of 2021. Gas is near 400% higher than the start of 2021, while CO2 is […]