The more than decade-long fight against a coal line, led by California coalition Keep Coal Out, has just progressed after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that would require the state to prepare a new environmental impact report before a potential coal terminal could be built in Oakland.<\/p>\n
The bill, Assembly Bill 40, does not ban the building of a coal terminal in Oakland, but aims to set up a path to limit the amount of pollution the line would emit if built. Additionally, the bill aims to inform lead agencies that could approve the line on the potential public health risk that would occur as a result.<\/p>\n
Oakland developer Phil Tagami has led plans to build a coal terminal in Oakland for more than a decade. The terminal would receive coal from Utah by train and act as a midway point to export coal to Asia. Community members rallied against the proposal, setting off a decade-long fight over coal policy that continues to this day.<\/p>\n
The outcry against coal mainly revolves around public health and climate change concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf (people have) heard of it, they\u2019re against it, and if they haven\u2019t heard of it, all you really need to say is \u2018They\u2019re planning a coal terminal,\u2019 and people are like, \u2018Wait, what? We don\u2019t want that,\u2019\u201d said Clara Weinstein, the spokesperson for the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. \u201cSo really it\u2019s about getting out the word that this could actually happen and that there are ways people can take action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project has had a major role in the Keep Coal Out coalition, alongside other groups such as No Coal in Oakland and Earthjustice.<\/p>\n
No Coal in Oakland\u2019s push to get AB 40 signed by Newsom included voter mobilization campaigns and speaking at environmental committees in the state Senate to testify for the bill, according to No Coal in Oakland co-coordinator Margaret Rossoff.<\/p>\n
Other groups, such as the Coalition for Clean Air, have brought together organizers from across California to protest the building of the coal line, which would affect every community the rail line would pass through, according to Bill Magavern, a policy director at the Coalition for Clean Air.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoal use is declining in the U.S. because it can\u2019t compete with lower-cost renewables like solar and wind. So what we\u2019re seeing is the Trump administration wasting a lot of taxpayer money, desperately trying to prop up the coal industry, including through this Oakland terminal,\u201d Magavern said. \u201cSo, bottom line, greed and stupidity are what is driving this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Groups against the bill include California Business Properties Association, California Consumer Advocates for Affordability and Safety and the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, among others.<\/p>\n
Developers for the coal line received partial funding from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, but will have to rely on private investors to complete the project, according to Rossoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn environmental review was really crucial, but we\u2019re also just rolling up our sleeves because we know that this is not the endpoint. This is just another step,\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cThe environmental review process is going to be long. It\u2019s hopefully going to be really thorough, and we\u2019re going to be there every step of the way, making sure that it\u2019s happening in a fair way that really reflects the real cost of the coal terminal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The more than decade-long fight against a coal line, led by California coalition Keep Coal Out, has just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[192295,192296,63316,192301,192302,192303,192304,192300,192297,189643,143181,5037,192294,192299,111163,143,145,144,20673,121,1695,8229,4591,87922,192298],"class_list":["post-494453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ab-40","tag-assembly-bill-40","tag-bay-area-air-district","tag-bill-magavern","tag-california-business-properties-association","tag-california-consumer-advocates-for-affordability-and-safety","tag-california-hispanic-chapter-of-commerce","tag-ccair","tag-clara-weinstein","tag-coalition-for-clean-air","tag-earthjustice","tag-gov-gavin-newsom","tag-keep-coal-out","tag-margaret-rossoff","tag-no-coal-in-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-phil-tagami","tag-sacramento","tag-trump-administration","tag-uc-davis","tag-utah","tag-west-oakland-environmental-indicators-project","tag-woeip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494453","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=494453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}