Tue December 18, 2012 Coal May Pass Oil As World's No. 1 Energy
Source By 2017, Study Says Originally published on Mon March 25,
2013 2:49 pm Despite a slowdown in U.S. consumption, coal is
poised to replace oil as the world's top energy source —
possibly in the next five years, according to the International
Energy Agency. The rise will be driven almost entirely by new
energy demands in China and India, the IEA says. "This report
sees that trend continuing. In fact, the world will burn around
1.2 billion more tonnes of coal per year by 2017 compared to
today – equivalent to the current coal consumption of Russia and
the United States combined," says IEA Executive Director Maria
van der Hoeven. Together, China and India will account for more
than 90 percent of the rise in demand for coal over the next
five years, according to the IEA. The agency predicts that
coal's growth trend will hold everywhere in the world except the
United States, where it says the wide availability of cheap
natural gas brought a decli