US power plants to burn less coal in 2009: EIA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. power plants will burn 1.7 percent less coal in 2009 than they did the previous year as the economic crisis pushes down electricity consumption, the government's top energy forecaster said on Tuesday.

The Energy Information Administration revised down its forecast of the amount of coal that will be burned in 2009 in its monthly short term outlook. Last month the EIA forecast that the United States would burn 1.2 percent less coal in 2009.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)