The Post says global emissions are almost sure to rebound as economies reopen, and other news reports show that already happening, with Bloomberg reporting that oil demand in China has almost returned to its pre-pandemic levels.
The net result is that, when the coronavirus cut into electricity demand, utilities shut down their most expensive sources of supply—and often, those sources were coal plants.
“The outbreak has put all the pressures facing the coal industry on steroids,” IHS Markit coal analyst Jim Thompson told the Times.