Trump's Coal: It's What France And Italy (And Germany) Want; What's In Your Barge? -- February 21, 2018

By the way, while you read this article, note that the "Big Chill" will hit Europe starting early next week, maybe as early as this weekend. It could be epochal, as they say.  

Over at the sidebar at the right, I link the "big stories." From there, you can navigate to "Europe at a tipping point." There one can track how the energy picture in the EU is getting messier and messier; more and more hypocrisy as France, Germany, and Italy are importing record amounts of coal from the US. See below.

From that linked "Europe at a tipping point":

July 29, 2017: a trifecta --

• did anyone see this coming? Europe relying on coal.
• EU caught in bold-faced lie? EU spokesman lied about increased coal use in the EU.
• the dots are connecting faster than expected; the gap will keep getting wider ... sooner than expected

Now, today, a coal update for 2017:

From The Washington Times:

As France, Germany and Italy chastised President Trump for rejecting the Paris climate accord in June and mocked the U.S. for turning its back on the environment, their nations were busy importing record amounts of American coal.

The U.S. last year produced 773 million short tons of coal, 45 million more than 2016. That was the largest year-to-year increase in nearly two decades.
But that didn’t equal increased use at home, with more coal than ever heading overseas.

Indeed, the U.S. consumed 719 million short tons of coal last year, a drop of 12 million from 2016.

Total exports in 2017, however, shot up to 95 million short tons, a 58 percent increase over the previous year.

About 31 million short tons of that went to Asia, nearly double the amount from 2016. China alone imported 2.8 million short tons through September 2017 — a wild increase over the previous year’s 205,000.

Total exports to Europe reached 40 million short tons — 13 million more than in 2016.
Some of the most fertile markets in Europe are nations with leaders that have been the most outspoken in bashing Mr. Trump for pulling out of the global Paris climate pact, an Obama-era agreement that the current administration says unfairly punished the U.S. while letting major polluters such as China off the hook.

Chief among the critics has been French President Emmanuel Macron. Among other instances, Mr. Macron in December mocked Mr. Trump by launching the “Make Our Planet Great Again Awards,” a spin on the president’s famous campaign slogan. He gave grants to U.S. scientists to continue their research in France and said his country was leading the way in clean energy and carbon emissions reductions.

Through September 2017, France imported 1.5 million short tons of American coal — double the amount in 2016.

Through September, Germany imported 3.4 million short tons, compared with 2.5 million in 2016.

Italy brought in 2.2 million tons of U.S. coal during the same period; in 2016, it imported just 1.3 million.

Thy hypocrisy is getting tedious.