"The amount of coal burned to generate electricity has fallen in nearly every state, after peaking about a decade ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said yesterday.

Combustion of steam coal reached its apex in 2007, but it has declined nationwide 29 percent since then, the EIA said.

The swoon was particularly sharp in the Midwest and the Southeast. Six states -- Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania in the Rust Belt and Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina in the South -- accounted for "nearly half of the national decline," EIA said."

Benjamin Hulac and Elizabeth Harball report for ClimateWire April 29, 2016. [2]