Comment by tzs

They use coal for what they have not yet been able to replace with solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear because coal is their most abundant, accessible, and cheap domestic fossil fuel.

Exactly the same reason the US uses a huge amount of natural gas for producing electricity: it is their most abundant, accessible, and cheap domestic fossil fuel.

The US was doing a "yes to all" approach, and it still somewhat is due to market forces, but the federal government is trying hard to but the brakes on the solar and wind parts of that, and also trying hard to encourage more fossil fuel use.