According to the latest post from US Energy information Administration (EIA), natural gas is set to become the primary fuel to generate power for the first time ever in 2016. For decades, coal has been the dominant energy source for generating electricity in the United States but this year it would become the second fiddle to gas. One of the major reasons behind that has been the natural gas price decline. Back in 2008, the cost to produce electricity using natural gas was four times higher than that of the coal but now the cost is only marginally higher. In addition to that, using coal attracts higher environmental penalties.

Coal and natural gas generation shares over the past decade have been responsive to changes in relative fuel prices. For example, particularly low natural gas prices throughout much of 2012 following an extremely mild 2011–12 winter led to a significant rise in the natural gas generation share between 2011 and 2012, often displacing coal-fired generation. With higher natural gas prices in 2013 and 2014, coal regained some of its generation share. However, with a return to lower natural gas prices in 2015 favoring increased natural gas-fired generation, coal's generation share dropped again.

According to the EIA forecast:

• 33 percent of the power generated in the United States will be sourced from natural gas, compared to 32 percent from, coal, 19 percent from nuclear, 8 percent from non-hydro renewables, and 6 percent from Hydro.