[Vision2020] Pacific Northwest Coal Exports: Washington And Oregon Governors Call For Greenhouse Gas Study

Ted Moffett starbliss at gmail.com
Tue Apr 2 14:49:39 PDT 2013


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/pacific-northwest-coal-exports_n_2952245.html


*AP*  |  By By PHUONG LE Posted: 03/25/2013 8:40 pm EDT

SEATTLE (AP) — The governors of Washington and Oregon are urging the White
House to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gasses that would be emitted
elsewhere if the nation's coal is exported.

In a joint letter sent Monday to the President's Council on Environmental
Quality, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber called
on the federal government to examine the consequences on global air quality
if five coal export terminals proposed in Washington and Oregon ship up to
140 million tons of coal a year from Montana and Wyoming's Powder River
basin to hungry markets in Asia.

Given that coal exports from the Northwest could result in 240 million tons
per year of carbon dioxide emissions, the Democratic governors wrote, "it
is hard to conceive that the federal government would ignore the inevitable
consequences of coal leasing and coal export."

"We believe the decisions to continue and expand coal leasing from federal
lands and authorize the export of that coal are likely to lead to long-term
investments in coal generation in Asia, with air quality and climate
impacts in the United States that dwarf almost any other action the federal
government could take in the foreseeable future," they wrote.

The governors said that the U.S. is poised to become a significant supplier
of coal to Asia, and they noted that coal is a major source of global
greenhouse gas emissions. They worried that increase greenhouse gas
emissions from burning of coal are causing environmental and health costs
in the U.S. and around the world.

Kitzhaber has previously asked federal officials to study the environmental
impacts of mining coal in Montana and Wyoming, shipping it to the West
Coast and burning it in Asia.

Former Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat whom Inslee replaced in January, had
declined to take a position on coal exports, saying she wanted the
regulatory process to play out.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing three projects, including one
in Oregon at Port of Morrow in Boardman, and two in Washington in Longview
and north of Bellingham. No final decisions have been made on related state
permits for these terminals, the governors noted in their letter.

Proponents of the projects say they will create jobs and generate millions
in tax revenues.

Lauri Hennessey, a spokeswoman for Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports,
which includes U.S. coal producers, noted that the U.S. Senate voted last
week to oppose new requirements that federal agencies consider greenhouse
gas emissions in their analysis under federal environmental law.

"This requirement would be particularly damaging in the Northwest where
trade and export are vital to the economy and support good family-wage
jobs," she said.

Project opponents want regulators to study the broader effects of the
projects, including increased train traffic, carbon emissions from burning
coal overseas and other health and environmental concerns.

"Coal export would harm our air, water, and climate so it makes sense to
evaluate the impacts," Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of Columbia
Riverkeeper said in a  statement Monday.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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