Yesterday we ran an encouraging post on the strong move towards banning the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the U.S. And, a couple of weeks ago we also wrote how King Coal doesn't want to give up his crown.

What's a fossil fuel monarch to do when the going gets tough on the home front? Well, here's an idea - how about sending your pollution off-shore, by exporting coal to other countries?

Union Pacific Railroad is exploring coal export opportunities through U.S. West Coast ports, a spokeswoman confirmed. The Port of Long Beach, Calif., has had discussions about exporting coal in addition to the petroleum coke it already handles, a spokesman said. And the biggest coal port on the West Coast Westshore Terminals Ltd. at Vancouver, BC, has had inquiries, an executive said.

Growing demand and delivery problems in key producing countries have realigned the world coal market in recent months, making U.S. coal more attractive overseas. -- PEI

The U.S. has 27% of the world's coal reserves. So, you can see where this may head.... When you factor in that shipping emissions are only now being realised for what they are ("It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO₂, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas."), it's not a good look. Gotta love these free market solutions (not).