Assemblymember Mia Bonta's new bill could be a gamechanger in the struggle to keep a massive coal terminal from being constructed in West Oakland.

Invoking war powers under the Defense Production Act, President Donald Trump today announced a $75 million grant to help build Phil Tagami's "Beautiful, Clean Coal" terminal in West Oakland. This grant covers only a fraction of the $350-400 million needed to build what Trump described as a “massive new export terminal.” The grant is part of a $700 million package of giveaways to the coal industry that includes financing for new coal-fired power plants in Alaska and West Virginia, and support for coal plants in 10 states that voted for Trump. As an article by The Guardian explains, the Defense Production Act is “a cold-war era statute used to ...