Locals in rural communities across the West are concerned that some of the world's biggest coal and railroad companies will build rail lines through their backyards to haul Powder River Basin coal to the coast and on to Asia. They fear pollution, noise and congestion. Similarly, Asian activists don't want coal-fired power plants built next to traditional fishing communities.
As a result, world-wide environmental groups, grassroots groups in India and China, 300 doctors in Oregon and Washington, local governments in rural towns -- including Mosier, Ore., Edmonds, Wash., and Sandpoint, Idaho -- numerous Northwest Native American tribes and the city council in the port city of Bellingham, Wash., have all come together as allies in the worldwide fight against the international coal trade, reports Ray Ring of High Country News.
Ring reports that big coal companies, including Arch Coal Inc. and Peabody Energy, have shipped coal from the Powder River Basin to the Eastern U.S. for decades. But stricter regulations on burning fossil fuels and the natural gas boom have decreased the need for coal in Eastern power plants. Companies are selling to China and India, he writes, because those countries "are on a coal-fired power-plant building binge." Ring reports the opposition wants "thorough evaluations that weigh all the impacts" and public hearings around the Northwest. (Read more)
As a result, world-wide environmental groups, grassroots groups in India and China, 300 doctors in Oregon and Washington, local governments in rural towns -- including Mosier, Ore., Edmonds, Wash., and Sandpoint, Idaho -- numerous Northwest Native American tribes and the city council in the port city of Bellingham, Wash., have all come together as allies in the worldwide fight against the international coal trade, reports Ray Ring of High Country News.
Ring reports that big coal companies, including Arch Coal Inc. and Peabody Energy, have shipped coal from the Powder River Basin to the Eastern U.S. for decades. But stricter regulations on burning fossil fuels and the natural gas boom have decreased the need for coal in Eastern power plants. Companies are selling to China and India, he writes, because those countries "are on a coal-fired power-plant building binge." Ring reports the opposition wants "thorough evaluations that weigh all the impacts" and public hearings around the Northwest. (Read more)
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