KRFP recorded all except the first 15 minutes of the Tuesday, December 4, public scoping hearing for the environmental impact statement assessing a proposed new coal export facility at Cherry Point north of Bellingham.  As one of up to six new planned West Coast terminals, it could increase sales of Powder River Basin coal from Montana and Wyoming to China and other Asian markets.  At the meeting held in Spokane by the Washington Department of Ecology, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Whatcom County, most of the first 30 speakers reflected pro-coal objectives, because the Northwest Alliance for Jobs and Exports paid temporary workers to wait in line from 8 am until the start of the hearing and reserve the numbered cards that indicate the sequence of speakers.  In Spokane Coal Train Hearing – Full – Part 1, KRFP Radio Free Moscow presents the first two-hour block of the three-hour hearing.  It provides the rest of the recording, plus a few interviews done in the hall outside the hearing, in Spokane Coal Train Hearing – Full – Part 2.

Concerns over proposed rail shipments of coal through Montana, Idaho’s panhandle, and Washington state before being shipped to China drew more than 800 people on Tuesday to a public hearing at Spokane’s County Fairgrounds.

Boise Weekly first told you in February about how some of the globe’s biggest mining companies want to ship hundreds of millions of tons of coal through the northernmost sections of the United States.

This morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press reports that opponents of the shipments outnumbered supporters on Tuesday.  Opponents waved signs that said, “Check the Facts,” and wore T-shirts that said, “Coal is a dirty, old source of energy, and its time has passed.”

Boise Weekly reported on similar protests on November 17, when members of Moscow-based Wild Idaho Rising Tide joined Occupy Spokane to rally in the Idaho panhandle town of Sandpoint, where many of the shipments would roll through.

Read more: Coal Shipment Opponents: ‘They’re the Dirtiest, Most Dangerous Trains’

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

(Zach Hagadone photo)

“When we start putting jobs and the economy ahead of the environment and our children, we’re fools”

A plan by some of the globe’s biggest mining companies to ship hundreds of millions of tons of coal by rail through Idaho’s panhandle is still in its infancy, but that’s not stopping activists from raising a ruckus.

Members of Moscow-based Wild Idaho Rising Tide joined Occupy Spokane on November 17 to take their opposition to the Idaho panhandle town of Sandpoint, where many of the shipments would roll through on a journey from Montana to the Pacific Coast.  The coal would ultimately be loaded onto ships bound for China or India.

Read more: Groups Protest Proposed Coal Shipments through Idaho Panhandle

(By Zach Hagadone, Boise Weekly)

Cross-posted in the Earth First! Newswire: Groups Protest Proposed Coal Shipments through Idaho Panhandle