—Ninety gigawatts of coal-fired power plants will come online;
—New coal plants will increase international demand by 300 million tons;
—U.S. coal demand will likely drop due to “muted economic growth” and a growing shift by American utilities to natural gas;
—Peabody expects to sell between 245-265 million tons of coal this year worldwide, versus 250.6 million tons in 2011;
—In the U.S., Peabody says it expects to sell about as much coal in 2012 as it did in 2011.
Peabody, based in St. Louis, supplies enough coal to power 10 percent of the U.S. electrical grid and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.
THE PROBLEM WITH BURNING COAL