The US Energy Information Administration said in April that US coal production has declined over the past two decades. While the decline is partly attributable to the imposition of environmental regulations, it is only part of the story.
Scott Segal, co-chair of Bracewell’s Policy Resolution Group, told the Washington Examiner that economic factors have primarily driven the trend away from coal, noting that many of the toughest climate regulations were not fully implemented.
“It’s not environmental law, but it’s more economic law,” Segal said. “The supply of natural gas went up. The cost of producing natural gas went down.”
“A single drilling pad could produce dozens of different wells … As a result, it became less expensive and more environmentally protective to produce natural gas. And those were market forces. Those were not forced by environmental regulation,” he added.
