Seattle Times columnist Lance Dickie opined in the June 20 issue that that the Army Corps of Engineers needs to take a “rigorous, comprehensive look and how coal trains and coal ports will impact the Northwest.”
Coal-train interests, including the Alliance for Northwest Jobs & Exports, an organization operated by a pro-coal-train public-relations firm, have urged a narrow gauge in looking at the issue.
The Corp’s regulatory acting chief Jennifer Moyer has testified before a U.S. House subcommittee on energy and power that the Corps does not plan to do a comprehensive study on the effects of the China-bound coal shipped from Wyoming to West Coast seaports.
It’s up to state leaders and agencies, then, to bring a comprehensive review of potential impacts at each sensitive spot along proposed routes, including the terminals. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has been out front on this issue.
Meanwhile, as Dickie put aptly it, “the whole scheme would put a smile on robber baron John D. Rockefeller’s face.”[[In-content Ad]]
