In the dark

摘要

Coal may be the biggest source of fuel for electric generators and comprises nearly 25 percent of all energy used in the US, but it remains far less transparent than its competitors, fossil fuels oil and natural gas, when it comes to supply and demand metrics. The Energy Information Administration, the DOE's independent arm for analysis and statistics, publishes weekly figures for storage of natural gas, crude oil and all the key petroleum products. The only inventory data on coal are three months behind at least, buried in spreadsheets related to electricity generation.