> If you are exports were dominated specifically by the use of energy (over say human capital or laxer pollution standards)

But nobody ever said that. Chinese exports don't have to be driven by the use of energy to actually consume the energy! Labor cost was the main factor (but not really anymore, and the most labor intensive industries like clothing have long transitioned to even lower-wage countries in South-East Asia), followed with the industrial expertise (with a enormous qualified workforce tailored for industrial production), but once the industrial production happens there, the energy is consumed there and not in the Western world.