You often hear that the Chinese are bringing a coal-fired power plant on-line every week, on average. (That's a startling real statistic if you think about it.) The most shocking thing that I never hear mentioned is that they're burning US coal in those plants. The Chinese buy coal mined in the US, ship it all the way to the other side of the planet (using large amounts of fossil fuel), and burn it to generate electricity.
These barges of US coal float past dozens of our power plants on the way there. We won't use it because we're too environmentally-conscious. Actually, we're too misguided.
How many ridiculous wind turbines and solar panels will we need to install to counter this trend?? Wouldn't it be better to keep it here, burn it here in the cleanest way possible, and lower our energy costs?