These projects aren't small. Mastalio said some of the projects may be in lieu of natural gas facilities the firm would have done anyway. But not all of them. Nationally, coal still does most of the heavy lifting for electric utilities. Coal generates more than half of the nation's electricity.
Nuclear power makes up less than a quarter of production and natural gas about half of that.
But natural gas has been the fuel of choice for new production capacity because it burns cleaner and, until recently, was cheaper. But Pursell said he doesn't think there is enough natural gas to meet the growing demand for electricity, even with the increased drilling that has taken place since this winter's price increases. Jackson said that new technology has significantly reduced emissions and that mining coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin instead of in Missouri and Kansas has reduced sulfur emissions. Karl Zobrist, a lawyer with Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin and former chairman of the Missouri Public Service Commission, said he thinks that coal will give natural gas a run for its money but that ultimately it won't be the fuel of choice for new electric generation. Zobrist, who serves on Missouri Gov. Bob Holden's energy task force, thinks gas producers will catch up with demand.