China & India Exhaust Aussi Coal

An Australian report on the country's coal industry focused on the infrastructure shortfalls in shipping and mining capacity, and the investment needed to shore up the market for the world's biggest coal exporter.

The subtext, however, is more striking: The demand for coal -- the most carbon-heavy fuel available -- is so great in fast-growing China and India that the countries are exhausting the export market for the black gold. The supplies in the ground may not be taxed, but the ability to deliver the fuel to the factories and power plants burning it is.

By some estimates, China builds a new coal-fired power plant every week, and as the Australian experience makes clear, even China's abundant domestic supplies of coal aren't enough to keep up.

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