“OECD countries are kind of pushing faster now that they’ve had the issues with their conflict in Ukraine,” said Ian Lange, director of the mineral energy economics program at the Colorado School of Mines.

That could give Beijing leverage, said Morgan Bazilian at the Colorado School of Mines. “Will we see pushback on that level of economic warfare from the Chinese?”

“They try to protect against the risk to their company’s profits,” said Morgan Bazilian, a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

But Morgan Bazilian at the Colorado School of Mines said it might actually help quash some investor worries about long-term oil and gas infrastructure. That’s because, he said, this measure doesn’t directly legislate a reduction in greenhouse gas ....

“If we remove a gas tax, an economist would tell you that if you lower the price, you will increase demand,” said Morgan Bazilian, who directs the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “By doing this, one could minimize ....

Ian Lange, who teaches energy economics at the Colorado School of Mines, said that if he were running a coal mine, he’d ask one thing of his customers: “Show me, you know, give me a commitment.”

That’s the case in Europe too, despite the current surge in demand as it moves off Russian coal, according to Ian Lange, who directs the mineral and energy economics program at the Colorado School of Mines.

Morgan Bazilian, who heads up the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, said, “I don’t know if that has any precedent at all.”

Natural gas requires pipelines or special import terminals to move around the world. Coal, on the other hand, does not, noted Ian Lange, an associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines.

Morgan Bazilian teaches public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “When you look around and you do a bid for who’s going to build your plant, up till two months ago, the Russian plants were a very attractive option,” Bazilian said.