Coal power has been on the decline for years here in the U.S. Since its peak in 2011, coal generating capacity has fallen by nearly half.

And it’ll keep declining, according to a new brief from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Coal declined as the rise of fracking made natural gas way cheaper. 

“What you've seen is a lot of coal plants historically have been retired, and a lot of those have now been replaced with natural gas generation,” said Greg Upton of the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University.

He said coal has suffered a one-two punch. One is the low price of natural gas.

Two? “Those climate goals and those decarbonization goals that a lot of states have had, and a lot of utilities have had that have also not favored coal technology,” said Upton.

The president’s executive orders are designed to make coal easier to use and weaken clean energy goals.

But Akshaya Jha with Carnegie Mellon University said it’s not enough to reverse the trend.

“There’s no getting around that… economics surrounding the low cost of renewables, those economics have not changed,” said Jha.

He said it could slow down coal plant closures — a little.

“I'm thinking, you know, I'm thinking of one to two years delay, rather than a five to 10 year trajectory of keeping these plants open longer,” said Jha.

Jha said even if new data centers come online and increase electricity demand, it’ll be cheaper to meet it with wind, solar and natural gas.