Coal Trains Run into Stiff Resistance in U.S.

Allison Roberts News

Citizens and activists in the U.S. Pacific Northwest are fighting three different proposed coal terminals, including one in Oregon and two in Washington. Meanwhile, three formerly proposed coal terminals have already been defeated. Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign recently cited these defeats as signs of progress in the broader campaign to retire the use of coal plants across the U.S. …

Montana officials should seek facts on coal exports

Allison Roberts News

Just who is Montana Attorney General Tim Fox working for anyway? Recently, he wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Washington urging them NOT to study a proposed coal port’s impacts on Montana. The proposed Millenium Bulk Terminal at Longview, Washington, would ship about 48 million tons of Wyoming and Montana coal to Asia annually. …

Don’t Limit Coal Impact Study

Allison Roberts News

Attorneys general for the states of North Dakota and Montana have asked our Department of Ecology to limit the scope of its environmental impact statement on building a coal export terminal at Longview. The DOE should resist this pressure. The public comment period — which ended Nov. 18 — on those environmental effects the DOE should review generated more than …

State receives record 163,000 comments for Millennium project

Allison Roberts News

Regulators have received 163,000 comments on the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal dock west of Longview — likely the biggest public response to a project in state history. The latest Friday count surpasses the 124,000 comments received by the state Department of Ecology early this year for a proposed coal dock in Whatcom County. Read the whole story here.

Backers of Longview Coal Export Terminal Lonely in Tacoma at Fifth and Final Hearing

Allison Roberts News

Hundreds of red-shirted opponents of a coal-export facility in Longview packed a hearing in Tacoma Thursday, concerned about local and global spin-off effects of the project. The “scoping” hearing was the fifth and final one in a series of meetings held around the state. Opponents have dominated all of them. By now they have a well-practiced routine, waving signs, handing …

Coal Terminal Hearings Draw 1,000

Allison Roberts News

An estimated 1,000 people filed into the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds on Wednesday to make their best case for or against a proposed coal export terminal in Longview. The meeting was the latest show of force for two well-organized groups that have packed similar gatherings across the state since last month. Opponents, wearing red shirts, decried the …

Some Farmers Say Coal Terminal Would Benefit Agriculture

Allison Roberts News

A number of Mid-Columbia farmers showed support for a proposed Western Washington coal export terminal, saying it would benefit agriculture at a Tuesday hearing in Pasco. About 250 people attended the hearing at the TRAC center to weigh in on an environmental study for the facility, the third of five planned hearings on the Millennium Bulk Terminals project. About 1,300 …

Longview Coal Port Skeptics Want Thorough Study

Allison Roberts News

Inland Northwest residents turned out in force in Spokane on Wednesday evening to persuade officials that a proposed West Side shipping terminal’s potential environmental impacts reach far beyond its site on the lower Columbia River. “The environmental impact statement should include environmental impacts in Spokane,” Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart told representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, …

Longview coal hearing draws foes, backers

Allison Roberts News

About 2,000 people jammed into the Cowlitz Expo Center on Tuesday evening, capping six hours of hearings on a proposed Longview coal terminal in which both sides rallied vigorously but without the incivility law enforcement officials had feared. . . “How much more does my neighborhood have to suffer? … Justice, not expedience, needs to be the guiding light in …

New Poll Shows Majority of WA and OR Voters Oppose Coal Exports

Allison Roberts News

A new poll shows a majority of voters in both Washington (51%) and Oregon (54%) oppose the proposed plans to export coal from Northwest ports, with a majority of moderate (54% in both states), liberal (69% in WA, 75% in OR) and a large number of independent voters (48% in WA; 51% in OR) voicing opposition. The survey also found …