http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/10/army-corps-cherry-point/
Army Corps Denies Permits for Biggest Proposed Coal Export Terminal in
North America
Mary Anne Hitt | May 10, 2016 8:24 am
This is big—for our climate, for clean air and water, for our future.
It’s also big because the U.S. government is honoring its treaty
obligations. After a five-year struggle that engaged hundreds of
thousands of people, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a landmark
decision Monday to deny federal permits for the biggest proposed coal
export terminal in North America—the SSA Marine’s proposed Gateway
Pacific Terminal, a coal export facility at Xwe’chi’eXen (also known as
Cherry Point), Washington.
In January 2015, the Lummi Nation asked the Army Corps to reject the
project because it would violate U.S. treaty obligations to project the
tribe’s fisheries and ancestral lands. This is a huge win for the Lummi
Nation and its Northwest community allies over the coal companies.
The Army Corps made the right choice and did its duty by upholding
treaty rights and honoring the U.S. government’s commitment to those
treaties. Time and again, Pacific International Terminals has shown
disregard for the Lummi Nation and its allies, who have for years voiced
concerns about the project’s public health, economic and environmental
impacts.
I have had the great honor of joining tribal leaders in the Northwest
and the Power Past Coal coalition over the many years of this struggle.
The Sierra Club is proud and honored to stand in solidarity with these
Tribal Nations and community partners in the fight against coal exports
in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been inspired and electrified by the
hundreds of thousands of activists across the region who have spoken out
at public hearings, written letters, submitted comments and rallied for
clean energy instead of coal exports.
It’s encouraging to see this fossil fuel project that poses great risks
and harm to communities, the environment and local economies, receiving
the thorough scrutiny it deserves. Northwest families deserve and will
accept nothing less than this kind of leadership that protects our
health, safety, local economy and climate.
This decision comes on the heels of the recent bankruptcy of Peabody
Coal and the news last week that the U.S. crossed the milestone of
100,000 megawatts of coal plant retirements since 2010. Peabody was
banking on this project as a major customer for its coal and this
announcement deals another blow to promises by coal executives that they
have a revival on the horizon—claims that we recently challenged in this
open letter to the coal industry and industry analysts.
This is a historic win, but there is a lot more work to do. We will
continue to fight until our communities are no longer threatened by
these dangerous coal export proposals. Specifically, we will maintain
our opposition to this project as long as the developers continue
pursuing it and we will leave no stone unturned in our opposition to
Millennium Bulk Logistics in Longview, which will have public hearings
and a comment period this month and the Fraser Surrey project in British
Columbia.
We will continue to fight Arch Coal, Cloud Peak, Peabody Energy and
other coal companies that would jeopardize our health, safety, local
economies and natural resources—like Lighthouse Resources’, Millennium
Bulk Terminals, which wants to force a coal export facility into Longview.
These dirty and dangerous projects will not move forward and we will
strive to pursue pathways for justice for all communities as justice was
upheld today.
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