In the release, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the projects will be central to national security, domestic supply chains and American energy advancement. However, some lawmakers disagree.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LNM-20260605-OAKLANDCOAL-02.jpg\")
President Donald Trump speaks during an event about coal Thursday, June 4, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Behind the president, from left, are West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency administrator. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump just handed the dying coal industry $700 million in taxpayer money, and Americans will pay for it twice \u2014 once on their taxes, and again when their energy bills climb, their air gets dirtier, and their water gets less safe to drink,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, in a news release. \u201cAll to prop up the dirtiest, most expensive fuel we have, a relic the rest of the world is leaving behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huffman, who is also a ranking member in the House Committee on Natural Resources, slammed the Trump administration for building coal plants for the benefit of Big Tech, when wind and solar are readily available to produce more power. He asserted that Americans will be \u201cpaying the price\u201d in their electric bills.<\/p>\n
Similarly, U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said in a Thursday news release that she was \u201cunequivocally opposed\u201d to the decision to spend millions on \u201cprojects that move us backward,\u201d emphasizing the need for clean air and water.<\/p>\n
\u2018This isn\u2019t your grandfather\u2019s coal terminal\u2019<\/p>\n
However, some are also praising the president\u2019s decision and former Oakland mayoral candidate Mindy Pechenuk released a statement Friday celebrating Trump\u2019s \u201creal leadership\u201d and success of a project she championed.<\/p>\n
Pechenuk, who has been a Trump supporter, said the terminal will have \u201ccutting-edge\u201d safety systems, dust suppression technology and \u201cstrict accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t your grandfather\u2019s coal terminal,\u201d Pechenuk said. \u201cCoal stays enclosed. Dust gets captured. Air quality is monitored in real time for everyone to see. We are protecting our neighborhoods while creating opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump just handed the dying coal industry $700 million in taxpayer money, \u2026 all to prop up the dirtiest, most expensive fuel we have, a relic the rest of the world is leaving behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman<\/p>\n
Pechenuk criticized Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and her allies for \u201clegal obstruction,\u201d while asserting that the coal terminal will bring \u201chundreds of new jobs\u201d for Oakland residents. Lee has yet to make a public statement about the terminal but has historically opposed coal projects in the city.<\/p>\n
Other local groups in Oakland including the Sierra Club, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, and Earthjustice, echoed worries about the effects the terminal could have on the climate and health of residents.<\/p>\n
The Sierra Club reported that these executive orders on coal \u201cwill lead to thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of millions in unnecessary utility costs across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement this week of a controversial project that would create a $75 million coal export…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6898,4817,2351,13267,443,46669,20670,28118,536,143181,6774,38212,643,93,4306,28416,10533,143182,143,145,144,6827,2803,4586,26899,1695,143183,14442,87922],"class_list":["post-349892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-exports","tag-air-quality","tag-barbara-lee","tag-chris-wright","tag-climate-change","tag-coal","tag-coal-terminal","tag-department-of-energy","tag-donald-trump","tag-earthjustice","tag-energy","tag-energy-policy","tag-environment","tag-featured","tag-featured-news","tag-jared-huffman","tag-lateefah-simon","tag-mindy-pechenuk","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-port-of-oakland","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-shipping","tag-sierra-club","tag-trump-administration","tag-west-gateway-terminal-project","tag-west-oakland","tag-west-oakland-environmental-indicators-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}