Last week, I wrote that the U.S. coal industry is in trouble and the only way it can hope to reverse its downward slide is through increased exports, mostly to China. This isn’t a crazy notion: Coal consumption has been rising and will continue to rise in China, in absolute terms. But there’s reason to think the rate of growth may be slower than expected, and consequently that exports may not be the sure thing U.S. coal companies need.

The same discussion is happening in Australia: Coal companies are eager to build giant new coal mines in Queensland and they’re using projected Asian demand to justify them. Noted Australian economist Ross Garnaut, adviser to the Labor government and author of the famed (in some circles) Garnaut Climate Change Review, recently downplayed Chinese demand:

via Exporting to China may not save the U.S. coal industry after all | Grist.