Work OK’d to ready port for coal exports

SEATTLE – Efforts by the U.S. coal industry to expand its export market took a significant step forward Tuesday, as officials in Washington state approved a plan to ship the fuel to Asia through a Columbia River port.

Cowlitz County commissioners voted Tuesday to allow a subsidiary of Australia-based Ambre Energy to redevelop a port near Longview to handle 5 million tons of coal annually.

The project would serve mines in Montana and Wyoming.

Several environmental groups want to halt the project. They say it runs counter to efforts by Washington, Oregon and other states to curb their own greenhouse gas emissions.

The commissioners “drew a bubble around the project, and ignored every effect outside of that bubble,” said Jan Hasselman, a staff attorney with Earthjustice. “They ignored the effect of trains coming through Columbia Gorge, the effects of increased mining, the effects of mercury blowing back from China.”

Hasselman said environmental groups are considering appealing the permit.

Cowlitz commissioners on Tuesday approved two shoreline development permits for the project. The county’s planning department had concluded there would be no significant environmental impact from the project if certain conditions were met.

Mike Wojtowicz, the Cowlitz County building and planning director, said “the issues that were raised were all mitigated and didn’t rise to that level” of a fuller environmental impact statement.

But Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of Hood River, Ore.-based Columbia Riverkeeper, said the county should have completed a broader environmental analysis. “We think exporting millions of tons of coal to China is clearly a significant impact,” he said.