FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Groups Urge County Commission to Deny (or Delay) Permit for Longview Coal Export Facility
Nov 16, 2010
Kelso, WA–Cowlitz County Commissioners today heard a chorus of opposition over a proposed massive coal export terminal in Longview, WA.
The Cowlitz County Commissioners took public comments about whether to grant a permit to allow a coal exporting facility on waterfront land in Longview. Out of the 28 individuals testifying, 26 were against the project. The commissioners could reach a decision as soon as next week.
Energy companies would use the terminal to send millions of tons a year of Rocky Mountain coal through the Columbia Gorge by train, then load it into ships bound for China.
Conservation groups say the proposal runs counter to the Northwest’s longtime goals for cleaner energy, and hasn’t had a thorough environmental analysis.
Like many in Cowlitz County, Margaret Green only recently heard about the proposed coal export facility at the Port of Longview and opposed the idea.
“Longview needs to take a long view. Our valuable shoreline properties should move away from heavy industrial use. This project takes us on a dirty and reckless path versus a cleaner and more stable one,” she concluded.
Australia-based Ambre Energy would annually export five million tons of Rocky Mountain coal from a Longview port. The commissioners could vote as early as next week on the permit. The hearing showed that even in its initial permitting phase, opposition is growing quickly to the proposal facility.
Conservation groups say the proposal runs counter to the Northwest’s longtime goals for cleaner energy, and hasn’t had a thorough environmental analysis.
Groups including Columbia Riverkeeper, Climate Solutions, Earthjustice, Washington Environmental Council and the Sierra Club have expressed their opposition in public testimony.
Brett VanderHeuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeepers, believes higher-ups in the state should be making this call.
“The State of Washington can and should weigh in on this,” VanderHeuvel explained. “We shouldn’t leave this decision to local commissioners who are deciding whether to issue a shoreline permit or not. These are huge, regional and even national implications to exporting coal.”
K.C. Golden, Policy Director of Climate Solutions, says that long-term, the plan would create more jobs overseas than locally.
“Coal companies are targeting Washington as a gateway for coal export to China,” said Golden. “This one facility would export about as much coal as the whole state of Washington now uses, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It flies in the face of the state’s commitment to climate solutions and leadership in the clean energy economy. The most jobs, the best jobs, are in building our clean energy economy, not in serving as a resource colony for Asian economies.”
“This would establish a dangerous precedent that would have far-reaching implications from the destruction of priceless lands where the coal is mined in Montana and Wyoming, to the devastating effects of climate disruption when the coal is burned,” said Doug Howell, Senior Representative for the Sierra Club’s Coal Free Northwest Campaign. “A coalition of conservation, public health and faith organizations have been working tirelessly to end the use of coal in the Northwest and simply shipping the dirty and dangerous resource overseas to be burned completely undermines the work being done to move beyond coal.”
Health experts and the religious community also expressed concern on the impacts of the pollution from coal combustion. Health experts raised concern that Washington would export coal to China and import mercury pollution as the country burns more of the fossil fuel.
“The impacts of coal are well known and dangerous. Coal combustion releases mercury, and dozens of other substances known to be hazardous to the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems,” said Cherie Eicholz, Executive Director of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Moreover, the health implications of global warming are exponentially devastating. To protect our communities we must transition away from this dirty fossil fuel.”
“Religious communities across America realize that climate change is already a terrible threat to the poorest people, at home and around the world,” said Jessie Dye Program and Outreach Director, Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light. “From the valleys of Appalachia to the waters of Puget Sound, the effects of coal-fired pollution are destroying the air and water that we count on to give us our daily bread. Selling our coal to China is the same as selling our children’s future for someone else’s profit.”
All the economic, environmental and health impacts are reasons Cowlitz County citizen Gayle Kisner wanted to speak out at the hearing and voice their opposition. “In order to protect the citizens of Cowlitz county, you need to look at the whole picture, not the piece-meal permit applications, and insist that the County addresses the threats to public health this facility would cause,” concluded Kisner in her testimony.
About Columbia Riverkeeper: Columbia Riverkeeper’s mission is to restore and protect the water quality of the Columbia River and all life connected to it, from the headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.
About Earthjustice: Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.
About the Sierra Club’s Coal Free Northwest Campaign
The Sierra Club’s Coal Free Northwest Campaign is the regional effort in the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign- a national effort that aims to move our economy toward a clean energy future by stopping new polluting coal-fired plants, phasing out existing plants, and keeping U.S. coal reserves in the ground and out of international markets. Thanks in part to the work of the Beyond Coal Campaign, plans for 139 new coal plants have been shelved since the beginning of the coal rush, keeping more than 570 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and encouraging America to follow the path to a new clean energy economy. For more information about the Coal Free Northwest campaign, please visit http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/wa/.
About Climate Solutions: Climate Solutions mission is to accelerate practical and profitable solutions to global warming by galvanizing leadership, growing investment and bridging divides.
About Washington Environmental Council: Washington Environmental Council drives positive change to address our state’s most critical environmental challenges. For more than 40 years, we’ve been pivotal to enacting our most important environmental protections. We do this by building and leading partnerships, mobilizing the public, engaging decision makers, and taking legal action to clean up our water, reduce climate pollution, and ensure healthy and livable communities.
About Earth Ministry:
Earth Ministry is a non-profit organization committed to engaging the Christian community in environmental stewardship. We work in partnership with individuals and congregations to respond to this great moral challenge through education, individual and congregational lifestyle choices, and organizing for social change through environmental advocacy.
While Earth Ministry is rooted in the Christian tradition, they actively engage all religious communities on climate and energy issues through Washington Interfaith Power & Light. Their programs and resources are in use across the US and Canada and available to all.