Possible Coal Exports to China
Posted on July 2, 2012 by Catriona McCracken
Tags, Climate and Conservation
CUB’s General Counsel and Regulatory Program Director, Catriona McCracken, has just returned from a trip to China. She writes about her personal experience of coal exports to Asia.
I have been going to China on a regular basis since 1984, and the overwhelming impressions I take away from my most recent trip to China are: wow, what incredible progress; and, what are we doing to the air in the name of progress!
This was the first time I have flown extensively in China, my prior trips having involved mostly trains. And, when zipping along on those great high speed trains, I am used to the smell of burning coal and to seeing at least one power plant every 20 to 30 minutes. But not having flown much internally, I had never seen the effects of coal burning from the air. We cut through the smog to land in Beijing, and then took off through smog to fly to Xian, flying over smog the entire way and landing again through a curtain of smog when we arrived. It was the same again on the trip from Xian to Nanjing.
From what I have witnessed over the years, and have now seen from the air, it appears to be a combination of cement dust from all the new construction, coal burning for electricity, and the lack of rain to wash the air that is now creating the smog and making the air pollution in the north of China significantly worse. The best/worst example of this was outside Tianjin in the port area of Tanggu – an industrial and tourism development center where the air was very thick and dusty. It was a huge relief to get inside the aquarium and away from the unfiltered outdoor air.
I should note that it was not really a surprise that the worst pollution would be outside the main city of Tianjin - there has been a movement in China, since before the Olympics, to move industry out of the city centers to development zones. This zoning change does help if you are one of the city dwellers, but if you are a worker or farmer in or around the new development zone, watch out!
China continues to build coal plants at a phenomenal rate, its thirst for energy never ending. But local and national governments are beginning to think ahead: even if the USA retools to ship coal to China, will China want it?
One thing that you notice when travelling in China is the lack of zoning and zoning enforcement. This means that coal plants are frequently located next to housing areas and market gardens, meaning that what falls out of the sky lands on the soon-to-be harvested vegetables and is consumed not only through the lungs but also through the stomach.
While I am sure there will be arguments that claim that exporting US coal to China will help with the air pollution, because US coal burns with less impurities than the soft brown Chinese coal, I personally don’t think that it will help. The air pollution in China is already extreme in nature, and adding more coal will not change that no matter its quality. And what is spewed into the air in China blows our way on a daily basis.
In my opinion, ridding ourselves of coal in the US will only help with climate change issues if we don’t then export our coal overseas for others to burn. It is my belief that what will improve the quality of the air in China is increasing the price of coal—and anything that decreases the price of coal for China works against this goal.
CUB has just hired a utility resource analyst to review the many and diverse issues being raised in matters like this. As a key and current issue for the Pacific Northwest, CUB anticipates taking a position on coal exports before long. And concerns about air pollution are as real for Oregonians as they are for the Chinese. For now, these are my personal opinions and not the opinion of CUB. But keep an eye on our website for forthcoming information on coal, both used in our state and potentially exported.
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03/29/17 | 0 Comments | Possible Coal Exports to China