Genscape said that US coal consumption rose 4% in the past week as hot weather drove demand for cooling. But use of coal for the week ended Thursday fell 1% from the same week of 2010.

The power industry data monitor said that as coal to gas switching increased. WSI Corp weather service said that "Intense heat that has been so prevalent over Texas and the Southern Plains much of July began to lift northward and eastward.”

Cheaper gas and more costly coal is causing power companies to dispatch gas-fired generating plants ahead of coal fired facilities. Coal to gas switching is now sending 4.2 billion cubic feet per day of gas to power plants compared with 2.4 billion cubic feet per day last year at this time.

(Sourced from Reuters)