Shifting Emissions - Appalachian Coal Is Aid to India

Kevin Begos of the Associated Press reports that carbon dioxide emissions are at their lowest level in 20 years, presumably because utilities have switched from burning coal to burning gas.  Good news for those of you who believe cataclysmic climate change is being driven by greenhouse gas emissions.

Or maybe not such great news.  Kentucky and West Virginia will be sending 9 million tons of coal per year to India that otherwise might have been burnt here.  Here's the takeaway quotation form the Huffington Post article:

"With 1.6 billion people on this planet not having access to electricity, there is a tremendous international market for our coal worldwide," said Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett. "While we currently only export about 5 percent of our Kentucky coal overseas, we expect that number to grow."

 As long as people are living in energy poverty, they'll keep looking for a way out of it. And telling them to do without cheap power from coal in order to prevent global warming, when temperatures haven't risen worldwide in 15 years, is not likely to have much effect.