6 results for month: 03/2016
Utah Gov. Signs Bill to Fund Oakland Coal Terminal
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert this week signed a bill appropriating $53 million in state money to fund construction of a coal export facility in Oakland.
For over a year, Bowie Resource Partners, a Kentucky-based coal company with mines in central Utah, had been attempting to line up $53 million in the form of a loan to four counties from the Community Impact Board (CIB), an agency that disburses grants and loans to mitigate the impacts of extractive industries on federal land within their boundaries. Such localities receive no tax revenues from federal land so the federal government rebates a share of the royalties it receives from mining, oil, and gas ...
NCIO Rips Developer’s Op Ed Piece in S.F. Chronicle
No Coal in Oakland answers developer Mark McClure's misinformation-laden op ed piece published March 14 in the S.F. Chronicle.
Health Care Leaders Speak Out Against Coal
A delegation of health care providers spoke at the Oakland City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Coal’s Frontmen in Oakland: Who owns TLS?
Terminal Logistics Solutions (TLS), the newly created terminal operator hoping to ship millions of tons of coal annually through a new export facility in Oakland, may, in fact, be a subsidiary of Bowie Resource Partners LLC, the coal company whose Utah mines the terminal would serve, according to documents provided by Emery County, Utah, in response to a Sierra Club public records act request.
An email from investment banker Jeffrey Holt to public officials in Utah in March 2015 reveals a bold plan to create TLS as part of "the business arrangement" between Bowie, four Utah counties, and possible other users of the terminal. A term sheet accomp...
Utah Passes Bill to Invest $53 Million in Oakland Coal Terminal
Despite widespread opposition in Utah and Oakland, the Utah state legislature has approved a bill to invest $53 million of public funds in a high-risk scheme to ship millions of tons of Utah coal through the proposed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT).
The Utah Community Impact Board (CIB) originally proposed to subsidize the Oakland export plan using protected funds that are derived from royalties on fossil fuel extraction and dedicated to community investments in Utah. When legal challenges to that plan arose, Utah State Senator Stuart Adams introduced a bill that essentially launders the money by passing it through the state transporta...
City Council Defers Hiring of Private Consulting Firm to Weigh in on Coal
On February 16, 2016, the Oakland City Council removed an agenda item about coal that was scheduled for discussion and possible vote that evening. This was a proposal to have an environmental consulting firm review all the documents submitted regarding the use of the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT) for the storage of coal.
Coal campaign activists were concerned about this proposal for many reasons:
We do not believe such a review is necessary in order to establish that “substantial evidence” has been submitted that the storage and associated transport of coal pose a danger to the health and safety of the community and workers.
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