Franklin\u2019s organization is also rebuilding the \u201cgrand coalition\u201d of environmental groups, faith leaders, labor unions, and residents who fought to stop the coal terminal<\/a> a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n He pointed out that 40 Bay Area organizations and over 1,000 East Bay residents have signed an open letter<\/a> to the air board, urging the powerful regulator to review the developers\u2019 permit applications with the \u201cutmost care.\u201d<\/p>\n Between securing stricter air regulations and rallying community opposition, anti-coal activists hope to drive potential investors away from the project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe developers want everyone to believe that a coal terminal in West Oakland is a done deal,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cWe stand before you today to say that it\u2019s anything but a done deal.\u201d<\/p>\n No Coal\u2019s letter, which was shared with the air board last week, urges regulators to prevent increased fine particulate matter emissions from transported coal. The group cites a peer-reviewed study<\/a> published in 2023 that examined emissions from uncovered coal cars traveling between mines in Utah to the Levin Terminal in Richmond. The study found \u201csignificant increases\u201d in tiny air pollution particles known as PM2.5 due to the trains, representing a \u201csignificant public health hazard.\u201d<\/p>\n No Coal in Oakland is asking the air board to hold the terminal developer, Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, accountable for promises it made years ago that helped persuade a federal judge to set aside Oakland\u2019s coal ban. Franklin said this should include forcing OBOT to transport coal in covered cars and to adopt practices that will mitigate public health risks from coal dust. According to Franklin, covered coal cars do not appear to exist in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n Margaret Gordon, the co-founder and former head of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project<\/a>, showed the crowd in the church an inhaler that she said cost her $194. Asthma has been linked to various environmental pollutants, including particulate matter from coal dust. Gordon recalled visiting a school near the church many years ago, and a nurse pulling out a shoe box full of inhalers for students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re not going to have mitigations, they should not get a permit, a license, anything to operate \u2014 nothing,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n In December, the city granted OBOT permits to start building fences along a road near the former Oakland Army Base, marking the first approvals related to the project since 2018, according to the East Bay Times<\/a>. But developers are still a long way off from constructing a terminal.<\/p>\n Phil Tagami, one of OBOT\u2019s principals, did not respond to an interview request for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Veronica Eady, executive director of WOEIP, said the air district has invested a great deal in improving the health of West Oakland. She cited Assembly Bill 617<\/a>, a state bill approved in 2017 that required local air regulators to implement community monitoring programs to reduce air pollution.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy on earth would they permit this facility at the Port of Oakland?\u201d Eady asked. \u201cThis project can\u2019t break ground without multiple permits from the air district, so this is our opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n The legal battle to keep coal out of Oakland failed The Oakland coal war ignited in 2015, when media outlets reported that Utah officials were planning to invest in an export terminal proposed by Tagami and his partners in order to ship tons of coal to overseas markets. The location of the terminal was to be in West Oakland, on the former Oakland Army Base.<\/p>\n Public opinion was decisively against the project. The possibility that the city, which years earlier had picked Tagami\u2019s company to redevelop huge swaths of public land on the former Army Base, would be helping build one of the biggest coal export terminals on the West Coast upset many. Then-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf demanded that Tagami drop his pursuit of fossil fuels.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2016, the Oakland City Council banned the handling and storage of coal within the city. In response, the developers sued, arguing that Oakland had breached its contract with OBOT.\u00a0<\/p>\n A federal judge agreed with Tagami\u2019s company and, in 2018, ruled that Oakland\u2019s coal ban didn\u2019t apply to the project. But while the federal case was still pending, Oakland cut OBOT\u2019s lease for the land near the port, arguing that Tagami\u2019s team had failed to meet construction milestones.<\/p>\n This prompted another lawsuit from OBOT in 2020, with the developer accusing Oakland of creating construction delays. In 2023, a state judge ruled in favor of the developers after she found that the city had improperly terminated<\/a> its contracts with OBOT. The city appealed, but lost again. Last September, Oakland hit the end of its legal challenges when the state supreme court declined<\/a> to review the ruling.<\/p>\n The city still faces litigation with Insight Terminal Solutions, a company that wants to operate the terminal. Last October, a federal bankruptcy judge in Kentucky found that Oakland had interfered<\/a> with the developer\u2019s efforts to build the terminal, driving Insight into bankruptcy. This decision put the city on the hook for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. But Oakland avoided this disaster<\/a> after a different federal judge reviewed the case and determined that the bankruptcy court overstepped its authority.<\/p>\n In a couple of weeks, Kentucky Judge Benjamin Beaton will be hearing arguments from Insight and the city to determine the fate of this case.<\/p>\n Having emerged victorious from the years of court disputes, Tagami, when asked about his plans last September, made it clear the terminal project will proceed as originally proposed. This would include thousands of so-called bulk commodities passing through the terminal upon completion. In interviews with papers outside California, Tagami has estimated that the first cargo ships may start leaving the terminal in 2028.<\/p>\n A different coalition<\/p>\n Even as Oakland activists organize against the terminal project, a coalition of officials and fossil fuel executives in the Mountain West is preparing for the next steps to ship coal through Oakland to markets in Asia.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0838-1600x1200.jpg\")
West Oakland community leader and environmental advocate Margaret Gordonis among those vowing to continue the fight to stop coal shipments through the city. She spoke at the West Side Missionary Baptist Church on April 1, 2026. Credit: Eli Wolfe\/The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n
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A coal train parked on side tracks in Albany on Feb. 2, 2025. Environmentalists say they want to hold Oakland\u2019s coal terminal developers to their promise to use covered train cars. Credit: Darwin BondGraham\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n