stand up against coal export

Attend a hearing in Oregon to Deny the Morrow Permit

  • “… A proposal to run as many as 18 1.6-mile long coal trains a day through Seattle to a new coal terminal in Bellingham could cost property owners along the route as much as $265 million in lost property values.

    The Stranger, 11/10/12, “Coal Trains Would Hit Property Values Hard”

  • “I would like an economic analysis of the cost of asthma exacerbations, all along the route, due to the train and ship pollution… the hidden costs of asthma runs into the millions.”

    Greg Wolgamot, MD PhD, partial public comment submitted during scoping for Cherry Point coal export terminal

  • “This is the largest decision we will be making as a state from a carbon pollution standpoint certainly during my lifetime, and nothing comes even close to it. “

    Washington Governor Jay Inslee, 1/17/13

impacts

The world’s biggest coal companies want to ship a hundred million tons of coal a year to Asia through Northwest ports – spreading toxic coal dust in dozens of the Northwest’s rail communities, clogging our railroads and ports, risking our families’ health, polluting our air and water, and stoking the climate crisis. Learn more about the impacts these proposed projects would have in these areas.

An index of downloadable resources organized by subject is available here.

voices of concern

The wide ranging health dangers of coal dust include exposure to toxic heavy metals like mercury and increased rates of asthma, especially in children. Coal dust and diesel exhaust from coal trains and cargo ships can cause serious long-term health problems like lung and heart disease and would hurt our health and pollute our clean air and water. Exporting coal to Asian nations encourages them to burn more dirty coal and prolongs the world’s transition to cleaner alternatives. The result would be more global warming pollution, resulting in more forest fires, more flooding and lost agriculture, forestry and fishery revenues. More coal burning in Asia would mean more toxic pollution travelling across the Pacific to contaminate rivers, lakes and fish.

resources

An index of downloadable resources organized by subject is available here.