EDITORIAL: Oppose coal shipments; Eugene has much to lose, little to gain

Allison Roberts News

It’s hard to imagine how any councilor could do anything but vote to put Eugene on record as opposing the industrial-scale movement of coal by slow-moving trains, some up to 11/2 miles long, through the city.

Global firms such as Ambre Energy Ltd. and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners are seeking approval to build Northwest coal shipping terminals, including one in Coos Bay. The projects involve moving massive amounts of coal in open-top rail cars from Montana’s and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to Spokane and then to ports throughout the Northwest.

If the Coos Bay terminal is approved, coal cars would travel from Portland into Lane County, switch onto the Coos Bay Rail Link in Eugene and travel west toward Florence and then south.

Project supporters insist the shipments would cause little disruption. That’s like arguing that a person with a massive intestinal tapeworm will barely notice the intruder’s presence.

Read entire editorial here.