{"id":428284,"date":"2026-08-09T19:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428284\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T19:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T19:12:12","slug":"congresswoman-simon-demands-investigation-into-trumps-abuse-of-emergency-powers-for-coal-export-terminal-in-west-oakland-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428284\/","title":{"rendered":"Congresswoman Simon Demands Investigation into Trump\u2019s Abuse of Emergency Powers for Coal Export Terminal in West Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"nnpa-byline\">By Post Staff<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined California senators and other members of the California delegation to Congress to call on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Trump administration\u2019s use of the Defense Production Act and other taxpayer funds to support coal projects, including the proposed coal export terminal in West Oakland.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">Defense Production Act funding is for national defense emergencies, such as authorizing private car companies to build parts for tanks or ships.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">Since President Donald Trump\u2019s June 4 announcement of $75 million in funding for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, Simon has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZLmA9tidKR\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> opposed<\/a>\u00a0and worked to stop the proposed coal terminal.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">She filed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have prohibited funding for the proposed Oakland coal export terminal project; however, House Republicans blocked the amendment.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">Last week, in a letter to the GAO Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Simon and her colleagues questioned the Department of Energy\u2019s plan to use up to $425 million in DPA funds to support coal-fired power plants and construct the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland.<\/p>\n<p>Trending<a class=\"monsterinsights-inline-popular-posts-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.postnewsgroup.com\/court-temporarily-blocks-release-of-angola-3-inmate-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Court Temporarily Blocks Release of \u2018Angola 3\u2019 Inmate<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">This terminal project would primarily serve foreign commercial markets, rather than meet national emergency needs.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">\u201cThe Defense Production Act\u00a0was intended to scale up domestic industrial capabilities to meet urgent military or national emergency needs; therefore, its invocation to construct a commercial, civilian export facility intended primarily to serve foreign commercial markets raises profound statutory, legal, and fiscal questions,\u201d\u00a0wrote the lawmakers, which included Senators Alex Padilla (D) and Adam Schiff (D), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee and Reps. John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Ro Khanna (D-CA-17).\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">\u201cWe do not believe this satisfies the statutory definition of \u2018national defense\u2019 or \u2018critical infrastructure protection\u2019 under the DPA and that there is no legally sufficient, data-driven nexus between civilian coal exports and immediate U.S. military readiness or critical infrastructure defense,\u201d the lawmakers\u2019 letter said.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">DPA funds are intended for U.S. national security and defense readiness. The Trump administration is instead diverting these funds to support a commercial export project that primarily benefits private industries and foreign markets in East Asia.\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">\u201cCongress has never appropriated funds to the DOE\u2019s DPA account with the intent of propping up a dying industry or financing a purely commercial project,\u201d\u00a0continued the lawmakers. \u201cWe are deeply concerned that DOE has improperly diverted funds from accounts intended by Congress for the critical modernization and resilience support of our nation\u2019s grid to instead finance a commercial fossil fuel export project.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">Simon and colleagues also raised concerns that the Trump administration has improperly diverted funds designated for critical grid modernization and may be using emergency authorities to circumvent local environmental protections. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p data-amp-original-style=\"margin: 0 0 1em 0;\" class=\"amp-wp-c3eb1a2\">\u201cWith no clear national security nexus, we question whether the DOE utilized emergency DPA authorities with the intent of preempting or subverting valid local health ordinances and environmental regulations. If so, this would be a gross departure from the intent of the DPA,\u201d\u00a0concluded the lawmakers.\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"i-amphtml-intrinsic-sizer\" role=\"presentation\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyBoZWlnaHQ9Ijc1IiB3aWR0aD0iNzUiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyIgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4xIi8+\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786302732_859_c17edb59ffe7440a3c09be741a73bd763318c49d7b3d40fd57cf435cd7802a7c.jpeg\"  height=\"75\" width=\"75\"\/><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Post Staff U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined California senators and other members of the California delegation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[9984,6361,170442,723,96324,28118,6070,93,3721,405,170443,28416,64244,10533,721,974,111164,170444,13,59978,101,103,102,104,106,105,143183],"class_list":["post-428284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-adam-schiff","tag-alex-padilla","tag-coal-export-terminal","tag-crime","tag-defense-production-act","tag-department-of-energy","tag-environmental-regulations","tag-featured","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-government","tag-government-accountability-office","tag-jared-huffman","tag-john-garamendi","tag-lateefah-simon","tag-law","tag-national","tag-oakland-bulk-and-oversized-terminal","tag-orice-williams-brown","tag-politics","tag-ro-khanna","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-west-gateway-terminal-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428284","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=428284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}