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The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has published a report concluding that coal production in the state dropped by 28 percent last year as competing energy sources took market share away. The downturn is especially difficult for Belmont County, which was responsible for 64 percent of Ohio’s coal production in 2016.

A U.S. coal-industry subsidy proposed by Energy Secretary Rick Perry would probably mean higher electricity bills for customers in areas where it would be applied. Kentucky is among them.

PUSH Buffalo, a community group focused on urban development, is promoting career development in the growing clean energy economy “as the world moves to more efficient, renewable, distributed energy sources.”

Three members of Congress are co-sponsoring the America Wins Act, a proposal to invest $1 trillion in U.S. infrastructure with a special focus on communities hard hit by the coal industry downturn. The bill would be funded by a tax on carbon emissions, and would earmark $5 billion a year for economic transition.

Kentucky manufacturers that include Toyota and GM are showing a growing preference for renewable-powered electricity, and so are retailers like Walmart and logistics companies like UPS. The trend has given rise to the possibility of a state “green-tariff” program that many large power users would likely support.

A review of U.S. mining data shows “only modest gains in jobs and production this year— much of it from a temporary uptick in foreign demand for U.S. coal rather than presidential policy changes” since last year’s election.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky “may have undercut” the Trump administration’s proposed coal-industry bailout by confirming the appointments of two free-market regulators to a panel that will vote on the plan. One replaces a former McConnell aide, and the other has been a wind-industry lobbyist. Both “have vowed not to tilt electricity-market rules in favor any particular fuel.”

The latest forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration has about 30 percent of the country’s electricity coming from coal, compared with over 50 percent a few years ago. “Natural gas is again expected to exceed coal generation, totaling 31.5% in 2017 and 32.3% in 2018.”

Duke Energy Corp., in a move to keep four North Carolina coal-fired electricity plants on line, says it will spend $200 million over the next three years to retrofit the plants to burn natural gas. “It gives us the opportunity to take advantage of lower fuel costs,” a company spokesman said.

Victories in gubernatorial elections by Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, complemented by election results in Washington State, will probably offset the Trump administration’s pro-coal policies. State and local carbon-permit schemes will likely expand, earmarking billions in dollars for efficiency and renewable energy.