This article was originally published on Wyofile and Casper Star Tribune on October 29, 2021.

If coal export advocates are serious about preserving jobs and building a bridge to a post-coal economy, then our politicians need to cut a deal, a green deal, and do it right away.

The fastest and simplest way to both reduce carbon emissions, and bolster Wyoming’s coal industry, is to displace Russian and Indonesian coal with Wyoming’s cleaner burning coal. And thanks to a unique set of political circumstances, we have a fleeting opportunity to accomplish that right now.

While 62% of our country’s bituminous and subbituminous coal mines have closed since 2008, China’s appetite for coal is so great that they can’t get enough of it, leading to severe electricity cutbacks and periodic blackouts. That’s bad news for environmentalists and an enormous opportunity for Wyoming.

Wyoming’s coal burns hot and efficiently and has a lower sulfur content compared to most other forms of coal. Lignite coal, found in countries like Indonesia and Russia, has not been under as many centuries of geological squeezing, which leaves it with a higher moisture content and a crumbly texture. That leads to a lower heating value, which means it takes more coal to produce each megawatt of electricity. Every ton of Indonesian and Russian coal displaced by Wyoming coal reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Last year China built a whopping 38 gigawatts of coal-fired electrical capacity, which was nearly equal to all worldwide retirements combined. This not only means their capacity is expanding, but the young age of their coal power plant fleet means China’s demand for coal will continue for decades. And while they produce the most coal in the world, China also consumes the most, leaving them to import between 250 and 300 million tons of coal every year (that’s about half of the total coal consumption in the entire U.S.).

This demand is principally met by lignite coal imported from Russia and Indonesia, raising the price of lignite coal and making Wyoming coal cleaner and cheaper on a relative basis. As Bloomberg news puts it, “China is paying the most on record for the dirtiest type of coal.” Cindy Baxter, an environmental campaigner, says about the use of lignite coal, “Not only are we burning more coal, [but] it’s the dirtiest coal. And it comes from Indonesia where the conditions and the mining is appalling.”Due to a rare procedural situation, President Biden’s infrastructure bill only needs the support of 50 senators. That is an opportunity not to be missed.