Coal Hard Facts

摘要

The last coal barge docked at Mississippi Power's Plant Watson in Gulfport in February, ending annual deliveries of 1.65 million tons. In neighboring Alabama, two units of the Greene County plant will cease coal operations by next April, after receiving about 1 million tons a year by barge. Both are switching to natural gas. And both reflect the turmoil in a coal market that's seeing not only coal plant closings and conversions but also coal company bankruptcies, falling prices, lower export demand and tough federal environmental regulations - all of which hit barge operators who haul one fifth of the nation's coal.