The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) latest short-term energy outlook (pdf) reveals that coal inventories in the electric power sector reached 93.7 million short tons as of December 2021—an increase since September when stockpiles hit a historic low not seen since the Carter administration. Isaac Orr, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told The Epoch Times he thinks the increase stemmed from warmer-than-expected winter temperatures, greater wind generation, and electric companies’ decisions to hold onto coal as a safeguard against potentially extreme winter weather. “Companies are saying, ‘Look, we know we’re going to need this coal when the cold snap hits. So, let’s preserve it to kind of keep our powder dry,’” Orr said. In September 2021, coal stockpiles at U.S. power plants fell to just over 80 million tons. This marked the smallest quantity in more than four decades, when in March 1978 power sector …