Efforts to Export PRB Coal / John Simpson
EFFORTS TO EXPORT PRB COAL TO ASIA Detour Through the Courts
By John Simpson, Editor, Coal Transporter
W
hile U.S. and European thermal coal consumption has softened in recent years, the global coal trade has continued to grow. According to the International Energy Association, worldwide coal exports have more than doubled since 2000, with global trade in coal consistently growing faster than global consumption.1 And that trend is likely to continue, with the Energy Information Administration forecasting an average growth in the global coal trade of 1.4 percent annually through 2050.2 The lion’s share of that growth will come from exports to Asian economies—both mature and developing—as they increase their reliance on coal-fueled electricity generation. Since 2009, the top five coal-importing countries have all been located in South or Southeast Asia: Japan, India, China, South Korea, and Taiwan.3 According to IHS Markit, Asia’s share of total global coal demand will increase from its approximately 77% share today to 81% by 2030.4
18 | COAL TRANSPORTER
All of which would be good news to western U.S. coal producers—particularly those in the Powder River Basin that mine low-sulfur coal attractive to Asian power plant operators—were it not for the lack of coal export terminal capacity on the West Coast. Currently, there is only one such facility that inland coal producers can readily access—Westshore Terminals, in Delta, British Columbia, which is already Canada's busiest coal export terminal.5 Efforts to remedy that situation by building deep-water export facilities with access to rail—in Longview, Washington, and Oakland, California—point up the difficulties in building fossil fuel infrastructure in municipalities more politically in tune with renewable energy interests.
Millennium Bulk Terminal
In 2011, Millennium Bulk Terminals LLC purchased the site of an abandoned aluminum smelter in Longview, Washington, with plans to invest an estimated $600 million to upgrade the existing
