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January 16, 2011 in Business
Caldwell: China wants to keep coal trains running on time
Spokane is halfway to the millennium.
That may not be a good thing.
Last week, an entity called Millennium Bulk Terminals bought the Longview, Wash., site where Reynolds Metals used to smelt aluminum. Millennium, a subsidiary of Australia-based Ambre Energy, plans to convert the facility to one from which upward of five million tons of coal from the Powder River Basin mines of Wyoming and Montana could be shipped to China each year.
The Chinese build new coal plants at the astounding rate of one per month. Their mines, and those in major suppliers like Australia and Indonesia, cannot keep up. They already import coal from the interior of British Columbia and Alberta, and some Powder River Basin coal has also been shipped north for export from a terminal near Vancouver, B.C.
The U.S. coal moves through Spokane, as do other trainloads headed for the Portland General Electric generating station at Boardman, Ore., and the TransAlta-owned plant at Centralia, Wash.
BNSF Railway will not disclose how much coal it moves across the Inland Northwest. Because the number of customers using the railroad to ship coal is so few, a spokeswoman says, revealing the volume shipped for one would tell competitors — mines and railroads — how much capacity others are using.
But Millennium Chief Executive Officer Joe Cannon estimates shipments to Longview might add one train per day to the traffic. With more than 50 trains rolling past daily on the shared BNSF/Union Pacific tracks, the impact would be relatively small – unless you are waiting at a crossing for one of these mile-long trains to pass.
When, or if, those trains come is causing some heartburn for the state of Washington.
After the Cowlitz County commissioners granted Millennium a shoreline permit, environmentalists appealed. Review of the air-quality impacts, they say, should take into account not just the pollution from loading the coal at Longview, but its combustion when it reaches China. Why insist on ever-tighter pollution controls at Boardman and Centralia, they ask, if the Chinese can burn the same stuff with none of the environmental constraints?
The Department of Ecology, which shares those concerns, intervened in the case late last month.
That prompted a visit by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who has been none-too-subtle expressing his concerns that officials in Olympia are interfering with development of his state’s vast coal resources, and the mining jobs that result. Many Washington utility customers, including those of Avista, use electricity generated with Montana coal, he notes.
He left a Jan. 5 meeting with Gov. Chris Gregoire apparently satisfied Washington just wants assurances everyone complies with the rules.
Cannon says he is on board, too, although he adds the company hopes to be loading ships by the end of 2012.
A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assistant administrator whose responsibilities included air quality, Cannon says Powder River coal will replace much dirtier coal China now burns.
“There will be no increase in greenhouse gases as a result of this,” he says.
Cannon adds that Millennium will be cleaning up a site still polluted by smelting operations that ended almost a decade ago. The irony, or aluminumy: Longview and Kaiser Aluminum Corp.’s Mead and Tacoma smelters were shut down for lack of electricity.
China’s appetite for carbon boggles the mind. That Powder River coal, clean as it may be, will displace rather than supplement what the Chinese can get elsewhere, does not seem likely.
But Washington’s ability to check that demand by denying Millennium its permits seems no less unlikely.
Only the Chinese can stop that train.
Caldwell: West Point trained local bankers to survive 
polistra on January 16 at 2:52 a.m.
Nothing ironic (or aluminumic) about it. We are a colony of China in the old-fashioned mercantilist sense. Our resources belong to China’s industries, not to our own dying industries.
That’s the whole point of the Carbon Cult. It has nothing to do with pollution and everything to do with Chinese economic imperialism.
China has already won. We might as well give up and figure out how to live happily like Haitians.
Liberty_Bell on January 16 at 6:46 a.m.
And why do you think Mr. W. Buffett, bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad?
They say your an idiot, but thats ok, your an American that had any former intellegence sucked out by a Washington Education Association, a Washington State Requirement.
Or was it Jim Patterson’s, Canadian Coal Dock, a little north of Pt. Roberts Washington that confuses everyone in Olympia too.
Serviced by two railroads, the Great Northern, and the Canadian Pacific, making it the worlds largest port for coal tonnage anywhere on the planet.
If you don’t like it, it can always go through Prince Rupert too!
Vote Christine Greguoir, and you too can be left behind, the party of the (D)elerious!
empyrius on January 16 at 7:19 a.m.
And now it is a grand liberal plot that we sell China coal Liberty_Bell???
And it is God’s fault humankind chooses to sin right . . .
Liberty_Bell on January 16 at 7:44 a.m.
It’s the individual right empyrius, buy and sell, they call it Commerce, and if you don’t like it vote Christine Greguoir, shown best in United States v. Locke.
Christine and Gary 0-9 United States.
“Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Liberty_Bell on January 16 at 7:53 a.m.
Its a grand plot, when your God sin’s left, eh empyrius…
Just get left behind, you can spell it; Say WA!
http://www.jimpattison.com/export-and-financial/westshore-terminals.aspx
Liberty_Bell on January 16 at 8:09 a.m.
Vote Say WA?
Left, Left, Left, behind forever!
http://www.rupertport.com/pdf/media/dpc%20may%202010-%20gateway%20to%20success.pdf
mikeln on January 16 at 8:23 a.m.
I find it funny that people still beleive there is a difference in D.C. We have filled our represenitive seats with bought and paid for traitors. While this seems like a problem consider the fact that most of our recycled metal is going to china to build the fastest growing millitary ever in the history of mankind. We have been sold out and we still sit here and cluck like a chicken. If we were to raise to much of a stink, we would be gunned down just like in any other dictatorship.
empyrius on January 16 at 8:31 a.m.
Insults and cut and paste Liberty_Bell is the best you got?
Is it too much to ask for a five paragraph, ORIGINAL, staying on the topic, unbrokened link essay?
O, my bad, “don’t ask questions soldier” . . .
empyrius on January 16 at 8:32 a.m.
Amen to that mikeln!
Albert on January 16 at 8:47 a.m.
Here’s an interesting thought for consideration: Back in the late 1970’s, a Chinese govt. group popped into Fontana, CA. They purchased a dump motel, surrounded it with barbed wire, then brought over an unknown number of slaves. These slaves dismantled Kaiser Steel of Fontana, piece-by-piece and shipped it back to China. The only remaining part of the steel plant was the concrete foundation.
The slaves returned to China and the dump motel was sold to a fellow from India who maintained the status quo of the dump features.
The point? We are shipping American assets to China to support slave labor. These slaves live like they did in the dump motel, send their pennies-per-hour wages home to support their starving families. They work until they die…read the stories. We are supporting this system that is dedicated to destroying America. The results are quite evident aren’t they? Walk into any hardware store and see where the tools are made. Check out the plates, cups, storage ware, etc. the next time you shop. We could go on, however the point is made. Montana in it’s greed, is giving away America’s coal to China’s slaves.
I’m NOT a radical, nor political, thus my statement is made over the disgust of ongoing worldwide slavery that we support in our daily purchases. Stop this now.
Oh, did I mention that American’s used to purchase these same products when they were made by Americans? Growing up in Detroit, the good majority of my neighbors worked for the various auto makers. How about “off shore slave contractors” who replace highly educated and trained American college grads??? Oops.
mikeln on January 16 at 9:20 a.m.
We are now sending the dollors spent on road surfaces and concrete to china, Look up MDU corp. and see who owns it and what they own. To allow this to happen in our country is treason and was done for a pocket full of gold.
greenlibertarian on January 16 at 8:41 p.m.
I would never have thought this to be economical for the Chinese, buying and shipping coal from Montana to China.
OTOH, China does have some rather serious pollution problems that they are trying to address.
Still, I think I’d rather see that clean(er) coal burned in this country, as the local pollution from burning coal is rather significant.
Powder River basin is producing about 400M tons of coal a year, so this particular project would be a little over 1% of the basin’s output.