It's not just related to cement. For example, I worked in road construction for several years. When you're laying a roadbed, a tremendous amount of fly ash is used to set a base for the road. Really, there's no effective replacement when you lose that. There are more expensive alternatives.
Has there been any economic modelling done on the coal phase-out and the costs associated with it, not just from the carbon and electricity prices going up from but the secondary by-products created by that?