My friend Derrick, who just returned from a civic junket to China, tells a story of leaving actual carbon footprints as he walked around villages in the Shanxi Province (China's top coal producing region).

The Associated Press wrote much the same story yesterday, painting a picture of soot that travels from Shanxi Province to the Pacific Northwest in less than 10 days:

It takes five to 10 days for the pollution from China's coal-fired plants to make its way to the United States, like a slow-moving storm.

It shows up as mercury in the bass and trout caught in Oregon's Willamette River. It increases cloud cover and raises ozone levels. And along the way, it contributes to acid rain in Japan and South Korea and health problems everywhere from Taiyuan to the United States.

This is the dark side of the world's growing use of coal.

The bright side? I don't see one. But, much like Senator John Barrasso's wholehearted support of Wyoming's coal industry, the folks in Taiyuan, China celebrate the wealth that coal has brought to them:

Almost overnight, coal has turned poor farmers in this city of 3 million people into Mercedes-driving millionaires, known derisively as "baofahu" or the quick rich. Flashy hotels display chunks of coal in the lobby, and sprawling malls advertise designer goods from Versace and Karl Lagerfeld. Real estate prices have doubled, residents say, and construction cranes fill the skyline.

A museum in Taiyuan celebrates all things coal. Amid photos of smiling miners, coal is presented as the foundation of the country's economic development, credited with making possible everything from the railroad to skin care products.

"Today, coal has penetrated into every aspect of people's lives," the museum says in one of many cheery pronouncements. "We can't live comfortably without coal."

Let's focus on that last statement — we can't live comfortably without coal. I think it's as relevant to challenge that notion in Wyoming as it is Shanxi  Province, don't you?

It's time for Senator Barrasso and all the other clean coal advocates to stop dragging their heels through the soot. It's time for a letter writing campaign that encourages Barrasso to put Wyoming's special interests aside and fully support Lieberman-Warner when it comes up for consideration by the full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Various mailing addresses for Senator Barrasso can be found here.

Carbon Neutral Journal's thoughts are brought to by Hawtin Jorgensen Architects.

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