West Coast mayors’ efforts to block fossil fuel shipping terminals in the name of environmentalism threaten jobs and budgets in far-away coal-producing states such as Utah and Wyoming.
The City Council in Oakland, Calif., wants to prevent coal from being ferried through a planned $250 million terminal that Utah may subsidize. Portland is drafting rules to bar new fossil-fuel infrastructure. Cities in Oregon and Washington have passed resolutions opposing mineral shipments, arguing that carcinogenic coal dust will harm residents and that burning the fuel overseas will contribute to climate change.
The coordinated effort is a new tactic in the battle over climate changeg and comes on the heels of the Paris accord that committed the United States and other nations to lower emissions from carbon-based fuels. It pits liberal urban enclaves against resource-dependent, Republican-leaning states ready to finance shipping terminals hundreds of miles away to sustain ailing industries and workers at home.
“The net effect of these actions is something of a green wall along the West Coast,” said Portland Mayor Charlie Hales. “It’s not just symbolic. It’s a deliberate turn toward public policy that strands much of the fossil fuel already discovered in the ground by not facilitating its movement to market.”
The U.S. exports about 125 million tons of coal annually, and West Coast coal-shipping terminals are at capacity. Blocking construction of terminals that would allow overseas expansion could further diminish the industry in states that depend upon it, said Dale Hazelton, an Annapolis, Md.-based senior research manager with Wood Mackenzie, which provides intelligence for the energy, metals and mining industries.
“Coal-burning in the U.S. is going to go down, and the export market is going to be the only place to go with it,” Hazelton said. “Coal’s heyday is in the past in the U.S. In other countries it’s just building up.”
Wyoming, which produces 40 percent of all coal dug in the U.S., faces a $638 million decline in revenue over the next three years, thanks in part to falling use of the fuel. Coal accounts for 14 percent of Wyoming’s gross state product and 6 percent of its jobs.
To lessen the impact of declining domestic demand, the state wants to help companies within its borders that operate the largest U.S. coal mines, such as Peabody Energy Corp., Cloud Peak Energy Inc. and Arch Coal Inc. In March, the legislature authorized issuing up to $1 billion of bonds through the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority to finance construction of coal terminals in the Pacific Northwest.
Republican Gov. Matt Mead said these facilities are critical to a state that relies on commodities for 70 percent of its revenue. Not only are the West Coast cities threatening his state’s economy, but they are meddling with interstate commerce, he said.
