I’ll attribute the date of the peak to the Obama mercury regulations, which made it substantially cheaper to avoid coal. The continued drop is in large part because gas, wind, and solar, and short-term storage have become cheaper over time. Part of this is due to an improved regulatory environment and subsidy system under Biden.
Peak US coal use was in 2007. This makes it very misleading to use a linear trend based on data starting in 1990.
I’ll attribute the date of the peak to the Obama mercury regulations, which made it substantially cheaper to avoid coal. The continued drop is in large part because gas, wind, and solar, and short-term storage have become cheaper over time. Part of this is due to an improved regulatory environment and subsidy system under Biden.