By Kevin O’Brien
The News Tribune
June 12, 2012
Coal companies want to build enormous export terminals in Washington state to ship coal through our region to Asia. While permitting such coal terminals may sound like a mere technical matter, it is not. This is a decision that affects the future of our region and our world.
When faced with such decisions, my own faith tradition, Christianity, teaches that we should seek to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” We should consider the impact of our choices on other people, near and far. In fact, every traditional religious faith shares this golden rule, that we should treat others as we want to be treated.
Moreover, whether we come from a faith tradition or not, all of us embrace the idea that human beings should be treated with dignity and respect. These moral teachings should guide our choice about coal export terminals, and, I believe, guide us to reject the permitting of coal terminals in our state.
What would these terminals do to our neighbors? We can start at home. The proposed terminal at Cherry Point could send more than 3,000 coal trains through Pierce County each year. Train cars full of coal can release toxic dust containing mercury and other heavy metals that are known to increase childhood asthma rates and cause birth defects.
Coal trains are also incredibly disruptive, and a fully operational port at Cherry Point could send as many as 18 coal trains, each a mile long, rolling through DuPont, Steilacoom, University Place, Ruston, Tacoma, Puyallup and Sumner every day. We can find better and cleaner ways to use our railroads. To care for our neighbors in Pierce County, we must say no to coal export terminals.
Refusing to export coal is also the right thing for Washington. It is true that export terminals could create jobs in our port cities, but most of the wealth they produce would be sent to the shareholders of out-of-state companies. Communities along the rail lines would suffer the health, safety and economic consequences of coal trains while seeing few of the potential benefits.
We can do much better than that for our workers and for our state if we instead invest in clean and renewable energy. A year ago, Washington finalized forward-thinking plans to shut down our only coal plant by 2025. Permitting coal export terminals would be a step backward, a step away from the future.
As we phase out coal and explore the potential of wind, water and sun to produce energy, we could lead the way in a new clean-energy economy. For the health of our neighbors across this state, we must say no to coal export terminals.
Refusing to export coal is, finally, the right thing to do for our world. If coal is too dirty for us to burn here in Washington, then we should not send it across the ocean where it will poison others. In the face of a changing climate, we all have a vested interest in keeping fossil fuels in the ground rather than allowing them to pollute our atmosphere.
It is true that developing economies in Asia need energy sources, but we should offer tools for clean and renewable power rather than dirty fossil fuels. If we truly care for our neighbors around the world, we must say no to coal export terminals.
Our elected leaders, including Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Gov. Chris Gregoire, need to hear from citizens that our communities’ health, safety and quality of life are at stake. They should hear that we care enough for our neighbors to commit to a renewable energy future rather than clinging to coal. The moral thing to do is to reject coal export terminals.
Kevin J. O’Brien teaches Christian ethics and environmental ethics at Pacific Lutheran University and is a board member of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light.