U.S. exports help feed Asian hunger for coal, but green opposition limits more from going overseas

Shattering the narrative of coal’s demise, the world is using more coal than ever before – and America is helping to fill some of that demand. The U.S. would be helping to supply more of it, but export terminal capacity is limited due to opposition from environmentalists.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), coal exports to Asia and Africa surged in the first half of 2024 over the same period in 2023. Driven by deliveries to energy-hungry China and India, exports of thermal coal to Asia increased 19%, or 2.3 million tons, in the time period.

Thermal coal, sometimes referred to as steam coal, is used to generate electricity and to heat spaces. This is different from metallurgical coal, also called coking coal, which is used in a variety of industrial applications, including steel production and brick manufacturing. It’s also used to make the polysilicon in solar panels.

India accounted for 57% of U.S. coal exports to Asia in 2023, according to the EIA. Chinese electricity plants accounted for the rest of the increase in exports.

Exports of thermal coal to Africa also increased from 3.3 million tons in the first six months of 2023 to 5.3 million tons in the same period this year, according to the EIA. U.S. exports to Europe in the period fell 63% primarily due to a mild winter and increased use of natural gas. Renewables also contributed to weakening coal demand in Europe.

Emily Arthun, CEO of the American Coal Council, told Just the News that the EIA had remarked on the growing export amounts to Asian countries at a coal marketing strategies conference earlier this year. “We can be competitive, and we have the cleaner-burning coal that is sought after by these countries,” Arthun said.

In an editorial in Real Clear Energy, Arthun disputed claims by anti-fossil fuel advocates that coal is overwhelmingly harmful to human health. Since the Industrial Revolution, which was primarily powered by the switch from burning wood to burning coal for energy, Arthun explained, average human lifespans have doubled. 

"And with the Industrial Revolution also came the advances that led to longer lifespans for all – new medicines, better homes and lifestyles, the potential to better oneself through business and education, safer towns and cities, and other advances. So, in many ways, it can be said that coal built modern society and freed mankind from the Hobbesian nightmare," Arthun wrote, adding that she predicts that coal will remain a part of the energy mix well into the future. 

The EIA estimates that there are about 1.16 trillion tons of proved recoverable coal reserves in the world, and 75% of that is in five countries. Of those five countries, the United States has the highest reserves at 22% of the total. Wyoming has been the top coal-producing state in the U.S. since 1988, supplying over 40% of U.S. coal demand.

Wyoming could tap markets overseas, but Travis Deti, executive director of the Wyoming Mining Association, told Just the News the West Coast lacks the export terminal capacity to serve those markets and it’s too expensive to ship it east.

“It just doesn't really pencil out right now for us to move our coal east. Some of our operators are moving a little bit of coal through the Great Lakes and that way, but not in the amounts that we need to see,” Deti said.

Wyoming and other coal-producing states in the West had hoped to build an export terminal on the Columbia River in 2018. The Washington Department of Ecology denied the project a permit, arguing that the project would have negative impacts on the environment. Six states, including Wyoming, along with five other states, sued Washington over the decision, but after developer Lighthouse Resources filed for bankruptcy, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal as moot.

Deti said that Wyoming’s low-sulfur coal is sought after by overseas markets, as they want to get their emissions down as they use more coal.

“If the United States can provide it to them, that's great. I just wish the logistics worked out a little bit better,” Deti said.

According to the benchmark “Statistical Review of World Energy,” global coal consumption reached a peak in 2023, increasing 1.6% over 2022. It was seven times higher than the previous ten-year average growth rate.

China is currently developing enough new coal mines to produce 1.28 billion metric tons of coal each year, Reuters reports, and that includes projects across the globe, with over a third of that capacity under construction. Production from these projects is expected to come online in the next three to five years. 

According to the report, the United States is the fourth largest exporter of coal, behind Indonesia, Australia and the Russian Federation. The bulk of coal to India and China came from the top three exporting countries.