Ed Markey: “I thank the gentlelady. Republicans are saying that there is a war on coal. They even named this bill the End the War on…”

“I thank the gentlelady. Republicans are saying that there is a war on coal. They even named this bill the End the War on Coal Act. But the only battle coal is losing is in the free market to natural gas, to wind, to solar. Just 4 years ago, coal generated 51 percent of our electricity. Now it is down to 35 percent of our electricity. Have the lights gone off? No. And that's because coal has been replaced in the free market by natural gas, which has risen from 21 percent to 30 percent of all electrical generation in our country. And by the way, the same thing is true for wind. Wind has gone from 1 percent of electrical generation to 4 percent of electrical generation. That's your answer. That's what's happening. The marketplace has moved to natural gas--another fossil fuel, by the way--and wind. And why have they done so? Natural gas is cheaper than coal. It's more plentiful now because of fracking technologies. And the market has moved. What is happening? What is happening is that natural gas prices have gone down 66 percent in the last 4 years. That is the shift from coal over to natural gas. That's the arithmetic. You're a consumer, you see a product, it does the same thing as the other product, and it's dropped 66 percent in price. The arithmetic says I go and get that product if it's going to ensure that my home is heated, that my air conditioning goes on. It's just arithmetic. Coal is losing to natural gas.…”