You can stop worrying about your “carbon footprint” now.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports:
India is poised to surpass China as the world’s biggest thermal coal importer as the government seeks supplies for power producers that have halted plans for $36 billion of new plants because of a fuel shortage.
Purchases from abroad may exceed 118 million metric tons in 2012, compared with China’s 102 million tons, said Daniel Hynes, a director of commodity research at Citigroup Inc. in Sydney. Imports may rise after the government ordered state-run Coal India Ltd. to plug a local shortfall with foreign supplies, according to analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
India’s likely emergence as the world’s biggest coal buyer underscores a dearth of domestic fuel that has prompted companies from billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd. to Adani Power Ltd. to mothball plans for expanding electricity capacity. India’s $1.7 trillion economy grew the least in two years in July to September as power and factory output slowed. At the same time, China is adding twice as much coal-production capacity this year than in 2011, according to the National Energy Administration, reducing its import needs…