Coal burning continues to dominate worldwide electricity production

New York Times : Global coal use is expected to increase by 2.3% per year through 2018, according to a 16 December report by the International Energy Agency. Although burning coal is a major source of greenhouse gases, coal is inexpensive and abundant and readily accessible. Efforts are ongoing to make coal burning more efficient and to capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions, but such technologies have not proven to be economically viable and have not been widely adopted. However, the US Department of Energy predicts that domestic oil and natural gas production will continue to grow, and that natural gas will overtake coal for electric power generation in the US by 2040.