Energy Agency Predicts Coal's Short-Term Prospects are Bright Internationally

In the United States, recent data has shown that coal is losing ground, and is now neck in neck with natural gas in terms of the percentage of electricity generation the country gets from each fuel. Coal use is even diminishing in the southeast, a region that's typically relied on coal-fired power. But that's not indicative of what's happening worldwide, and new research shows coal could even surpass oil as the world's top energy source by 2017.

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