Ore. Governor Wants More Environmental Study of New Coal Exports
The Environmental Impact Statement about proposals to export coal from up to six sites in Oregon and Washington did not evaluate the effects of coal exports to Asia, only the environmental effects of transporting and using the coal in the Midwest and eastern U.S., said Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and officials at the Bureau of Land Management and Army Corps of Engineers.
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Kitzhaber said federal agencies should conduct a comprehensive analysis of the environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy security impacts of proposed coal exports to Asia before proceeding with further permitting and leasing decisions, such as those for the Port of Morrow project in Oregon. (See ITT Online Archives [Ref.12042016] for a report of the EPA's interest in the projects, which are designed to move coal from Montana and Wyoming for export to Asia.)
The current proposals in Oregon and Washington could result in an additional 157 million tons of coal exports, more than doubling the U.S. export capacity, with all of this increase going to fuel growth in energy production in Asia, Kitzhaber said. He said most of the as-yet unexamined environmental, health, community, economic impacts associated with this tremendous increase in coal transport to the west coast would occur in Oregon and Washington, and the air quality impacts on the West Coast of additional Asian coal-fired generation have not been analyzed.