{"id":494208,"date":"2026-06-15T17:53:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494208\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T17:53:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:53:03","slug":"trump-wants-to-put-a-75m-coal-terminal-in-this-liberal-california-city-residents-arent-having-it-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/494208\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants to put a $75m coal terminal in this liberal California city. Residents aren\u2019t having it | Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Oakland, a California<\/a> neighborhood known for its rich history of Black activism from the Pullman Porters\u2019 union to the Black Panthers, might not seem like the site of the country\u2019s next great coal project.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s exactly what the Trump administration<\/a> is pushing for \u2013 with the injection of $75m<\/a> to build a sprawling coal<\/a> export terminal in the nearby port of Oakland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, Donald Trump announced he was using<\/a> wartime powers to hand $700m to coal projects around the US, including the one in Oakland. The news has breathed renewed energy into a decade-long battle against the coal terminal, which Trump hopes will break ground as soon as this summer.<\/p>\n

Anti-coal activists were already planning a gathering about the project in Berkeley this month. But Trump\u2019s 4 June announcement<\/a> \u201caccelerated everything\u201d, said Veronica Eady, executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, a grassroots organization focused on environmental justice in West Oakland, which has a high pollution<\/a> burden from the nearby port, highways and other industry. \u201cNow there is even more urgency, particularly since President Trump said he wants it to start this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myrtle Street in West Oakland in 1963. Photograph: MediaNews Group\/Oakland Tribune\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Since the president\u2019s announcement, Bay Area organizers with the No Coal in Oakland<\/a> and Keep Coal Out of the East Bay coalitions have met to discuss strategies to continue their fight against the coal terminal, which has faced years of delays and lawsuits from the city, which has tried to ban coal storage.<\/p>\n

In a progressive city such as Oakland that has worked to remedy environmental disparities over the past decade, Trump\u2019s investment in one of the dirtiest fossil fuels sets California<\/a> up for another clash with his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy injecting millions of taxpayer dollars into a coal terminal that Oaklanders have fought for a decade to stop, this administration is sentencing West Oakland, one of the most pollution-burdened communities in California, to generational harm,\u201d the California state assembly member Mia Bonta said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe families who have fought the hardest to keep this terminal out of their neighborhood will bear the highest cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans over the coal terminal took shape more than 10 years ago, after the closure of a military base located in the port. The Oakland army base closed in 1999, and the site was eventually bought by a local developer named Phil Tagami, who signed a contract with the city allowing him to build a shipping terminal there. Tagami did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Although Tagami originally said he had no interest in shipping coal out of the terminal, he pivoted in 2015 when the state of Utah approached him with a deal to ship the state\u2019s coal to oversea markets. The following year, the city of Oakland banned coal handling and storage citywide. Although Tagami sued, the terminal\u2019s development stalled for more than a decade as challenges played out in local courts.<\/p>\n

Bordered by a major highway, the port of Oakland and logistics hubs, the neighborhood of West Oakland is filled with \u201cpollutant-emitting industry and infrastructure\u201d, according to an assessment for the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, which cites a history of redlining and systemic racism in the area. Over the past decade, residents have fought to address issues from the toxic waste buried under their homes<\/a> in the former industrial hub to childhood asthma rates<\/a> caused by traffic-related air pollution.<\/p>\n

The port of Oakland on 14 May 2026. Photograph: Smith Collection\/Gado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In their battle against the coal terminal, local organizers have cited fears that trains delivering shipments will coat the neighborhood in coal dust.<\/p>\n

After the California supreme court handed<\/a> Tagami a win in September, ruling that the city of Oakland had violated his contract when it banned coal storage and handling in the city, organizers with the No Coal in Oakland and Keep Coal Out coalitions pivoted. The goal of their community meetings, including one planned for 25 June, became \u201cto further our demand for action by state and local political and regulatory bodies\u201d, the No Coal in Oakland coalition wrote in a blogpost<\/a>. In April, organizers petitioned<\/a> the Bay Area air district to impose stricter air regulations on the terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may have been a misperception that once the city of Oakland lost, then it was over,\u201d said Eady. \u201cWe were getting out there to let people know: Hey, it\u2019s not over. There are all these permitting decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to mention that we have a new mayor,\u201d she added, referring to Barbara Lee, the trailblazing former congresswoman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Lee has not yet released a statement on Trump\u2019s announcement, she signed a pledge<\/a> agreeing not to accept money from coal interests while running for office last year. \u201cI strongly support Oakland\u2019s ban on coal and will continue to fight against any attempts to bring coal shipments through our city,\u201d she said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other California lawmakers have vowed to join in the fight, too. In an emailed statement to the Guardian, California the congresswoman Lateefah Simon said: \u201cThe Trump administration<\/a> does not have West Oakland\u2019s best interests at heart. I am committed [to] using every tool in our toolbox to stop this coal terminal and fighting on behalf of our residents. Oaklanders and our bodies should not have to pay the price for the administration\u2019s illogical, backwards policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protesters gather near the home of developer Phil Tagami to rally against a proposed coal terminal at the port of Oakland on 30 October 2017. Photograph: MediaNews Group\/Bay Area News\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, organizers say they\u2019re uncertain how soon construction could begin, but will use the coming months to rally community opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bad idea to build a dirty, polluting coal facility in an already overburdened community emerged more than a decade ago, and yet we still do not yet have concrete details on facility design or operations,\u201d Colin O\u2019Brien, deputy managing attorney of Earthjustice\u2019s California regional office, said in an emailed statement. \u201cThe federal funding announcement is far from the final word because the project still needs dozens of permits, meaning close scrutiny by local regulators and opportunities for the public to weigh in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Trump\u2019s announcement, Margaret Rossoff, a member of No Coal<\/a> in Oakland, said the coalition\u2019s coordinating committee and frequent collaborator, the Keep Coal Out coalition, had met to discuss tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main strategy is about financing,\u201d she said, pointing to estimates<\/a> that the terminal will cost close to $400m to build. \u201c$75m is not even a quarter of that,\u201d she said. \u201cSome investors need to decide to sink a lot of money into this. And our goal is to prevent them from doing that, prevent anyone from doing that, by making it clear that it\u2019s a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Coal in Oakland has printed and distributed yard signs opposing the terminal in the past, \u201cand we\u2019re gonna distribute hundreds more\u201d, Rossoff said. \u201cSo any potential investor who\u2019s driving around the Bay Area is going to see evidence of the entrenched community opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

When organizers host the coalitions\u2019 next community meeting on 25 June, they\u2019ll gather in Berkeley \u2013 with the aim of involving residents from cities across the East Bay. While the coal terminal will be located in Oakland, the trains that will transport coal to it are set to run through<\/a> Martinez, Richmond, Berkeley and other East Bay cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents have fought for years to keep this terminal from being built in their back yard,\u201d Sarah Ranney, director of the Sierra Club\u2019s San Francisco Bay chapter, said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cTrump is using the [Defense Production Act], which is meant to mobilize industries during a genuine emergency, to override that opposition. This isn\u2019t national defense; it\u2019s an end run around local democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Oakland, a California neighborhood known for its rich history of Black activism from the Pullman Porters\u2019 union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-494208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}