Millennium Bulk Terminals says a recent report from Montana may bode well for its proposed Longview coal terminal.
Millennium representatives on Monday pointed to a recent finding in a 23-chapter environmental impact study of the Tongue River Railroad coal project in Southern Montana. The study found the project would cause “very little change in overall coal consumption on an international level, as one coal tends to replace another.”
Bill Chapman, President and CEO of Millennium Bulk Terminals, said the finding is “significant.”
“A draft EIS, under the Obama administration, has taken an objective look at this and concluded that the effect of coal is not incremental,” Chapman said in an interview Monday.
Asian demand for coal will rise regardless of whether Americans produce it, and the Tongue River study supports that, he said.
“If they don’t buy it here, they’ll buy it from somewhere else,” he said.
The contractor that conducted the Tongue River Railroad EIS, ICF International, also is conducting the EIS for the proposed Longview coal terminal. The draft is expected in November.
Jan Hasselman, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, questioned Millennium’s analysis.
“We have done modeling of our own that shows that when you provide this really abundant cheap source of coal, it does change the international market and results in more coal being burned than would otherwise be the case,” he said.
“It’s not like the draft EIS for the Tongue River Railroad settles this question, which is in a lot of dispute,” he added.
Scientists say the burning of coal is one of the major sources of emissions contributing to global climate change.
Millennium led a tour of its Longview facility Monday with Rob McKenna, former state attorney general and the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 2012.
McKenna, who now works for a private law firm in Seattle, represents the states of Montana and North Dakota in their bid to export coal through Washington. He argues that blocking a coal terminal would violate federal commerce law by preventing Montana and North Dakota from moving their products to international markets.
Only the federal government has authority to regulate foreign trade, he said.
“There are real concerns to interior states if the permitting process gets politicized,” McKenna said.
Hasselman called that “a desperate argument from a desperate proponent who knows that this project is not likely to get much further.”
Washington could legally deny the permit for legitimate environmental concerns, Hasselman said.
“Washington has the right to determine how to define the health, safety and welfare of its own people and of its own landscape,” he said.
