As coal use wanes, US miners depend on foreign buyers, steel

It keeps getting harder to sell coal in the US US miners are forecast to cut production 4.7% in 2018 as electricity generators shift increasingly to natural gas and renewable energy, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The expected total of 736.3 million short tons would be the second-lowest since 1978, and just barely more than 2016, a year filled with mine closures, mass firings and bankruptcies.