<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">This is all the more reason we need to bring back the more <SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">environmentally </SPAN> friendly "<EM>Soul Train</EM>". Now that was the way to roll<VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR>. </SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Donovan J. Arnold</SPAN></div>
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<DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 0; MARGIN: 5px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class=hr contentEditable=false readonly="true"></DIV><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Nicholas Gier <ngier006@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> vision2020 <vision2020@moscow.com> <BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Saturday, November 17, 2012 11:45 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [Vision2020] Coal Trains Threaten Environment and Public Health<BR></FONT></DIV><BR>Good Morning Visionaries,<BR><BR>Some of you may have seen my column or heard my earlier radio<BR>commentary on this topic. I wish the protesters well in their street<BR>theater in <SPAN id=misspell-2
class=mark>Sandpoint</SPAN> today. I will join the human coal train with my<BR>own car at the scoping hearing in Spokane on December 4, 3-7 at the<BR>Spokane Fairgrounds.<BR><BR><SPAN id=misspell-3 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN> and other proposed sites are being promised jobs and new<BR>tax revenue, but Spokane and <SPAN id=misspell-4 class=mark>Sandpoint</SPAN> will get the brunt of 40--60<BR>additional coal trains with very little return. I suppose that some<BR>train crews will stay and eat in Spokane and <SPAN id=misspell-5 class=mark>Sandpoint</SPAN>.<BR><BR>A future column will rebut industry arguments that if we don't sell<BR>coal to China, Indonesian and Australia will simply increase their<BR>exports. The short response is that our coal will depress the market<BR>and delay the turn to renewable energy that China must make. Coal use<BR>in the U.S. is dropping dramatically and 100 coal plants will be<BR>phased out over the
next decade. They will be replaced by natural gas<BR>fired plants, wind, and solar.<BR><BR>Yours for a coal free future,<BR><BR>Nick<BR><BR>COAL TRAINS THREATEN ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH<BR><BR>Plumes of coal dust can often be seen from passing coal trains. I have<BR>often had to avert my face when a coal train passes to avoid being<BR>pelted with coal particles.<BR><BR>— William Van Hook, Assistant V-P, Burlington Northern Santa Fe<BR><BR>A friend of mine just bought a condo overlooking <SPAN id=misspell-6 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN> Bay, and<BR>she knew full well that the Burlington Northern tracks were 50 feet<BR>below her balcony. Later she discovered that each day two coal<BR>trains—125 cars, two locomotives in front and two in back—pass by with<BR>ear splitting horns sounding at every crossing. They are headed for<BR>Point Roberts, B. C., where huge coal freighters are loaded for<BR>shipment to China.<BR><BR>If the
coal companies and their allies have their way, the nation’s<BR>largest coal terminal will be built at Cherry Point, just north of<BR><SPAN id=misspell-7 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN>, where 225,000 barrels of oil are already refined each day.<BR>An estimated 40-60 extra coal trains from southeastern Montana and<BR>Wyoming will pass through <SPAN id=misspell-8 class=mark>Sandpoint</SPAN> and Spokane.<BR><BR>Nine trains a day will be redirected to <SPAN id=misspell-9 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN>, and the remainder<BR>will be sent to other proposed Oregon and Washington ports through a<BR>rail system that is already at 80 percent capacity. Nearly 140<BR>million tons of additional coal will sent to China from Coos Bay,<BR><SPAN id=misspell-10 class=mark>Boardman</SPAN>, <SPAN id=misspell-11 class=mark>Longview</SPAN>, St. <SPAN id=misspell-12 class=mark>Helens</SPAN>, or <SPAN id=misspell-13 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN> each year.
The<BR>developers are no doubt casting a wide net of proposals in<BR>anticipation of activist backlash.<BR><BR>The residents of Spokane will have a chance to have their concerns<BR>heard. The Army Corps of Engineers will conduct a “scoping” hearing<BR>on December 4. Activists all along the rail route are demanding that<BR>the scope of the environmental impact be “from mines to ports,” not<BR>just the terminals themselves.<BR><BR>The hearings have been billed as the “biggest experiment in<BR>environmental democracy the Northwest has ever seen.” The<BR>Environmental Protection Agency supports a comprehensive regional<BR>impact study, and the Army Corps of Engineers has already received<BR>30,000 letters.<BR><BR>The first hearings were held in <SPAN id=misspell-14 class=mark>Bellingham</SPAN> and Mount Vernon. Over<BR>3,000 citizens attended and 980 people spoke out or wrote comments.<BR>The overwhelming majority of the presenters were
against the coal<BR>trains. It was reported that “opposition speakers ranged from Native<BR>American leaders to retired scientists, organic farmers, commercial<BR>fishermen and birders.”<BR><BR>One birder testified that at least two bird species may be threatened<BR>by increased rail traffic. The <SPAN id=misspell-15 class=mark>Lummi</SPAN> Tribe testified that further<BR>development at Cherry Point will threaten the spawning grounds of<BR>herring, the main staple of salmon and <SPAN id=misspell-16 class=mark>orca</SPAN> whales.<BR><BR>A hearing was also held on San Juan Island where 250 people turned out<BR>to protest the dramatic increase in ship traffic through the narrow<BR>passageways of one of the most beautiful maritime regions of the<BR>country. The coal ships are so large that they cannot pass through<BR>either the Panama or Suez canals. Unlike oil tankers they are single<BR>hulled and do not require tugboat escorts. If
the Cherry Point coal<BR>port is built, one thousand of these behemoths will clog these tight<BR>waterways each year.<BR><BR>Residents along the tracks in Spokane already have higher mortality<BR>rates, partially because of the diesel exhaust and coal dust that<BR>already pollute their neighborhoods. The dust contains mercury, lead,<BR>arsenic, cadmium, barium, selenium, and other toxic elements. Fish in<BR>the Spokane River already have high levels of mercury.<BR><BR>Tests done by the Burlington Northern have revealed that as much as 15<BR>tons of coal dust can escape from an uncovered train after a 567-mile<BR>haul. A spokesman added that most of the loss happens during the first<BR>100 miles.<BR>A former railway executive who once raised concerns about the<BR>environmental dangers of shipping coal is now a vintner on the Oregon<BR>side of the Columbia River. A video shows him at the bottom of his<BR>property digging up handfuls of coal near the
rails, 700 miles from<BR>the mines. He is afraid that, if coal train traffic increases<BR>significantly, his grapes will start tasting like tar.<BR><BR>The people at <SPAN id=misspell-17 class=mark>PowerPastCoal</SPAN>.org report that “already, over 160 elected<BR>officials – including both Sens. Murray and <SPAN id=misspell-18 class=mark>Cantwell</SPAN> – close to 600<BR>health professionals, over 400 local businesses, 220 faith leaders,<BR>close to 30 municipalities and some Northwest Tribes including the<BR><SPAN id=misspell-19 class=mark>Lummi</SPAN> Nation have either voiced concern or come out against coal<BR>export off the West Coast.” The governor of Oregon and the mayor of<BR>Seattle have joined with these voices.<BR><BR>The coal industry promises new jobs and new tax revenues at the local<BR>level, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. (A follow-up<BR>column will address these points.) Prevailing winds will
bring back<BR>the toxins produced by Chinese plants within 10 days, and we will<BR>become complicit in China’s contribution to global climate change.<BR>Trains 1.5 miles long will clog traffic, impact economic activity,<BR>hinder emergency vehicles, cause hearing loss, and produce dangerous<BR>air pollution.<BR><BR>Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.<BR>Read his columns on climate change and the environment at<BR>www.NickGier.com/columns.htm<BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet,<BR>serving the communities of the <SPAN id=misspell-21 class=mark>Palouse</SPAN> since 1994.<BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net/</A><BR> <SPAN id=misspell-22 class=mark>mailto</SPAN>:<A href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com"
ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR><BR><BR></DIV></DIV></div></body></html>