Obama administration can’t wait to sell China all the coal it can burn

Grist Magazine ^ | 24 Mar 2011 | Christopher Mims

[george76]

Here's a recipe for climate catastrophe: First, authorize enough new coal production in Wyoming to yield 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Then authorize a new export terminal in northwest Washington to ship that black gold to Asia, where the other half of Chimerica will burn it to power the factories we shipped them in the infinite wisdom of globalization.

This process is called carbon offshoring, and it's the nastiest, planet-killingest scheme of which you've probably never heard. China is just the beginning:

...

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should block these deals on national security grounds, since "the Pentagon's most recent Quadrennial Defense Review highlighted climate change as a threat to national security."

[colonialhk]

lol high speed coal trains...the perfect offset to selling resources...converting them to union labor...rather than general funds to lower taxes and pay debt...suddenly makes sense to O’Nikita in DC.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The coal will move by unit train to a former aluminum smelter site (now a brownfield) on the Columbia River at Longview, Washington.

This part of the river will take deep draft vessels and really is an ideal spot for FOBing coal or other bulk commodities. The company I used to work for did extensive evaluation of Longview.

[colonialhk]

I hope they can pull it off Eric. We need the money and the Chinese need the low sulphur coal...I think the Greens will have a field day as they control the West Coast.

They will snipe at all of these projects and try to raise the capital cost of all energy foreign and domestic.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I’ll bet the PRB coal is the cheapest BTUs on the planet even by the time the coal reaches Shanghai.
We wanted to do heavy oil blending for the booming carbon black market in Asia (tires and rubber goods.)
It still could be done.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks george76.

But not a shovelfull from Utah.

[Lorianne]

Port plans include Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_eb3d6229-dfb8-5445-a46e-4dea4984e606.html

“Peabody Energy has completed a deal to ship Powder River Basin coal to Asia via a planned export terminal in northwest Washington.

The deal with Seattle-based SSA Marine will allow St. Louis-based Peabody to ship up to 24 million metric tons of coal per year via the Gateway Pacific Terminal near Ferndale, Wash.

The port would be Peabody’s West Coast hub for exporting Powder River Basin coal to Asian markets, Peabody said in a media release Monday.

It’s the largest West Coast export deal so far for coal mining companies with interests in Wyoming.”

[meyer]

We should keep the coal here and generate power with it. Sell China our excess windmills.