[MCN] WStJournal: Coal: Can Montana ride on Asia's coat-tails?

[Lance Olsen]

Coal Glut, Environmental Pushback Derail West Coast Port Plans
Once promising, exports to Asia have been undermined by oversupply, 
demise of port projects

http://www.wsj.com/articles/coal-glut-environmental-pushback-derail-west-coast-port-plans-1470070765

Opening paragraphs

Western coal producers once saw exports to Asia as their future. For 
many, that dream is fading.

A global glut has flooded overseas markets that were once expected to 
buy coal produced along a belt stretching from Utah to Montana that 
includes the Powder River Basin. The industry is also losing 
long-sought shipping outlets on the West Coast, where local 
communities have blocked construction of coal terminals amid concerns 
about climate change and pollution.

Out of seven West Coast export terminals proposed in the past five 
years-which combined could have handled over 125 million tons of coal 
annually-not one has opened.

The coal companies' defeats-under pressure from environmental 
groups-show the limits of miners' sway over authorities as cheaper 
natural gas and tighter emissions standards have slashed demand for 
the fuel. With three of the four largest U.S. producers in bankruptcy 
and others hampered by debt, the retrenchment has been swift.

"It looks discouraging," said Oystein Mathisen, president of Frontier 
International Shipping Corp., a ship brokerage

Full article here:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/coal-glut-environmental-pushback-derail-west-coast-port-plans-1470070765
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"Water vapor is also the most abundant greenhouse gas. As the 
equilibrium vapor pressure of water vapor increases rapidly with 
temperature, warming (or cooling) induced by a climate forcing will 
be amplified through water vapor feedback [e.g., Soden et al., 2002]. 
The strength of this feedback is a key determinant of the planet's 
equilibrium climate sensitivity."

Mark C. Serreze, Andrew P. Barrett, and Julienne Stroeve. Recent 
changes in tropospheric water vapor over the Arctic as assessed from 
radiosondes and atmospheric reanalyses.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117, 2012
doi:10.1029/2011JD017421, 2012

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