I’m guessing tha China has plenty of steam coal. Mid-vol metallurgical coal OTOH is an export commodity and we’re sending a lot, if not most, of it overseas now. Look at the coal docks in Norfolk and the ships laying at anchor off of Cape Henry waiting to load.
I sense that the UMW isn’t as heavy in met coal production. Met coal lives in tight little seams that are hard to get at since the big, easy seams have been pretty much mined out (Pittsburgh, Kittanning, etc.). These are little, non-union mines that I have seen in the met coal.
But someone in the industry can correct me if I’m mistaken.
this came to my notice when someone here in Annapolis questioned to the local newspaper why there was such very heavy shipping increase in the Chesapeake Bay, with many many more large ships idiing in the Bay waiting clearance for Baltimore
Importing and shipping our coal to their ports is cheaper for China than building the infrastructure they need to transport their own coal from their inland to meet the increasing demand at their heavily populated coastal cities and factories
Note that there is controversy about a port in Washington State being specifically constructed for the purpose of shipping coal to China. Served by rail of course (hasn't Warren Buffet heavily invested in rail?)
So maybe all this obammy talk about “infrastructure spending” is codespeak for a plan to turn our own workers into coolies mining and shipping American resources to China ... burning the coal that American energy plants (which are much more environmentally sound) are forbidden to burn
and the UMW and Teamsters and Transport Workers and Longshoremen - all copacetic with jobs gained from selling off America, piece by piece
The implications suck - eh
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._coal_exports
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/nyt-sobs-the-us-exports-coal-to-china
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/science/earth/22fossil.html
some background information