City of Missoula joins growing list opposed to Tongue River Railroad

Eric Shew News

The city of Missoula is asking the federal Surface Transportation Board to consider the local health and environmental impacts of a proposed Montana railroad and the increased coal traffic that could result if it’s built. By adopting the resolution Monday night, Missoula’s City Council joins several local and state entities in arguing that the additional coal trains stemming from the …

Scholars may never understand the energy source’s full economic cost, but that doesn’t make its damage any less knowable.

Eric Shew News

In Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, a radio broadcaster marvels at the wonder of coal: Consider a single piece glowing in your family’s stove. See it, children? That chunk of coal was once a green plant, a fern or reed that lived one million years ago, or maybe two million, or maybe one hundred million. Can you imagine …

World Bank rejects energy industry notion that coal can cure poverty

Becca Shew News, Uncategorized

The World Bank said coal was no cure for global poverty on Wednesday, rejecting a main industry argument for building new fossil fuel projects in developing countries. In a rebuff to coal, oil and gas companies, Rachel Kyte, the World Bank climate change envoy, said continued use of coal was exacting a heavy cost on some of the world’s poorest …

Proposed Coal Export Terminal Can’t Proceed in Absence of Rejected Permit

admin News

Tuesday, March 31, 2015 Contact: Meg Matthews, 206.291.5942, meg.matthews@sierraclub.org Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper, 503.348.2436, bv@columbiariverkeeper.org PORTLAND, Ore. — The proposed Morrow Pacific coal export terminal faces the latest in a series of disappointments today. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced that project proponent Ambre Energy can receive its water quality certification only if it also receives a permit …

Zombie coal subsidy returns and gets killed again

Eric Shew News

Call it the zombie subsidy. A $2 million state grant to help a coal export terminal near Clatskanie was killed in a vote by state transportation officials last August. But it refused to stay dead. The request returned to the Oregon Transportation Commission for a second vote Thursday. And for a second time, it was killed. Then-Gov. John Kitzhaber in …

Lummi Indian Nation Receives “Declaration in Support of Rights of the Lummi Nation” from Veterans For Peace

Eric Shew News

Lummi Indian Nation Receives “Declaration in Support of Rights of the Lummi Nation” by Veterans For Peace Corporal Jonathan J. Santos Chapter 111 of Bellingham, Washington The November 25, 2014 Lummi Nation Business Council meeting was the setting in which Lummi Council Chairman Tim Ballew II acknowledged the presence of several veterans and associates of Veterans For Peace, and received, …

Washington Tribe Wants Feds To Halt Coal Project

Eric Shew News

LUMMI RESERVATION, Wash. — The Lummi Nation issued a letter Monday to the U.S. government seeking to end the project’s permitting process for a coal-shipping project encircled by their Puget Sound fishing grounds. In the letter, the Lummi tribal council calls on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the review of a permit for the Gateway Pacific Terminal …

Northwest tribe calls for halt to coal project review

Eric Shew News

A recent request by the Lummi Nation to halt a federal permit review of the Gateway Pacific Terminal in Bellingham, Washington, sets an important legal marker in the debate over coal exports, according to legal observers and analysts. The tribe, in a Monday letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, asked the government to end its review of the …

Cherry Point coal terminal would harm salmon, Lummi way of life

Allison Roberts News

Someone once told me that anything can be accomplished if you just have enough time and money. But for many people and communities, including Lummi, currency is something far more valuable than a dollar bill. Salmon is our most important currency; it’s the lifeblood of our people and always has been. Our job is to ensure we have enough salmon …

Power Past Coal Stands with Lummi Nation

Allison Roberts News

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — The Lummi Nation today sent a formal request to the US Army Corps of Engineers asking that they deny a permit for the proposed Cherry Point coal export facility due to treaty rights. In response, Crina Hoyer, executive director of Bellingham’s RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, issued the following statement: “Power Past Coal stands with the Lummi …