Reuters quoted the government's top energy forecasting agency said that US power plants will burn less than 1 billion tonnes of coal in 2009 for the first time since 2002 as the recession and low natural gas prices cut demand.

Energy Information Administration said that power plants will burn about 994 million tonnes of coal in 2009. Last year US power plants burned more than 1.04 billion tonnes of coal.

EIA said that "A decline in overall electricity generation, combined with projected increases from natural gas, nuclear and renewable generation sources are projected to lead to a 4.6% decline in coal consumption in the electric power sector this year."

That was a bigger decline than the EIA forecast just last month when it expected the coal burn to fall 2.3% compared to 2008.

It said that coal demand for the power sector should rise in 2010 as the economy recovers, which means concerns about carbon dioxide emissions from coal could also rise. The US power plants would burn about 1.01 billion tonnes of coal by 2010.

(Sourced from Reuters)