If you oppose coal trains rumbling through Spokane on their way to the Gateway Pacific terminal there's reason to celebrate.

After 125,000 comments from Washingtonians, the Department of Ecology said it will study a broad array of environmental impacts before determining if development should move forward.  The Gateway Pacific would be the largest coal export terminal in North America, exporting up to 48 million metric tons of coal per year to Asia.

The study will require many aspect the coal industry hoped to bypass. Those include:

-A detailed assessment of rail transportation impacts in Whatcom County near the project site, specifically including Bellingham and Ferndale.

-An assessment of how the project would affect human health, including impacts from related rail and vessel transportation in Whatcom County.

-An evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions from terminal operations, and rail and vessel traffic.

-A detailed assessment of rail transportation on other representative communities in Washington and a general analysis of out-of-state rail impacts.

-An assessment of how the project would affect human health in Washington.

-A general assessment of cargo-ship impacts beyond Washington waters.

-An evaluation and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions of end-use coal combustion.

 

Sightline says this is bad news for the coal industry: 

Of those, two stand to be particularly damaging for would-be coal exporters: rail impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. There’s not a lot of wiggle room with either of those elements.

First, burning the 48 million tons of coal proposed for export at the terminal annually would release roughly 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, a staggering figure that amounts to as much carbon pollution as every activity in the state of Washington combined. In other words, it’s a clear environmental disaster that would overshadow every other effort the state has made to reduce climate-changing emissions.

Second, moving that much coal to a terminal will create congestion throughout the region. There’s simply no way around the math. In Seattle, for example, both Sightline and the traffic analysis firm Parametrix have confirmed that new coal export shipments would completely close major center city streets by an additional 1 to 3 hours every day, 365 days per year.

Read the full story HERE. 

Millennium Bulk Terminal in Longview is also seeking coal exports. But this study does not impact that proposal and would require a separate study. A terminal in Oregon — Port of Morrow — is also attempting to export coals.

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