Bay Area Air District: protect East Bay from coal terminal apocalypse
On April 1, 2026 the Keep Coal Out of Oakland Coalition presented the Bay Area Air District with an Open Letter signed by 45 organizations and more than 1,000 East Bay residents. The letter urges the Air District to protect our local communities from emissions of toxic coal dust and other pollution that will be generated if a proposed rail-to-ship coal export terminal is built in West Oakland. Signature gathering is ongoing.
The Open Letter begins:
[…] We urge the Air District to fully exercise its permitting, regulatory, and enforcement authority to prevent increased fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) emissions from coal transport through the planned Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT). Coal shipment to and through a facility adjacent to the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza would significantly harm the health of Bay Area residents, both in the immediate vicinity of the facility and all along the rail route from Martinez to Oakland. At particular risk are the West Oakland and Richmond/North Richmond/San Pablo environmental justice communities who collaborate with you on Community Emissions Reduction Programs.
Developer Phil Tagami, who holds the lease on the West Gateway site on which he has angled to build a coal terminal for more than a decade, has stated publicly that the Oakland Oversize and Bulk Terminal (OBOT) could be operational as soon as 2028. That raises the spectre of mile-long coal trains spewing toxic dust the year after next along dozens of miles of the East Bay’s waterfront, and unloading at the foot of the Bay Bridge – threatening our communities with asthma, cardiopulmonary disease, and cancer.
The Keep Coal Out of Oakland Coalition – of which No Coal in Oakland is a founding member – opposes any shipment of coal through Oakland’s waterfront. But to guard against the intentions of developers who continue to pursue this option, we seek binding, enforceable regulation to keep hazardous coal dust and diesel exhaust out of neighborhoods.
Veronica Eady, executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, put it succinctly at the coalition’s press conference on the Air District Open Letter:
We don’t want to perpetuate this legacy of putting pollution burdens on people of color and practicing environmental racism. And the stakes are life and death… not just in West Oakland, but in Berkeley, in Martinez, in all these communities that are along the route of this train.
As Aaron Reaven of No Coal in Oakland stated to the Air District Board of Directors at their meeting of April 1, 2026:
We know from the recent scientific work of Dr. Bart Ostro and colleagues, that the uncovered coal cars currently bringing coal to the Richmond terminal shed significant coal dust on their way from Utah, and surprisingly, also on their way back to Utah after incomplete unloading.
The scientists even discovered that enough coal dust gets deposited on the ground from coal cars in both directions that other rail freight cars not involved in carrying coal can re-activate, re-elevate and re-disperse that coal dust into our airshed when they travel those same routes.
Jack Fleck, of 350 Bay Area, also addressed the Air District’s Board:
One of the main reasons we are sending you this letter and making this request is that a federal court ruling gives the developer the right to export coal from Oakland. In his decision U.S. district court judge Vince Chhabria stated, ““The project developers submit that they are willing to obligate themselves to accept only coal that is carried to the terminal on covered rail cars.” He added, “the Air District in the Bay Area could require [the developer] to mitigate emissions by using coal covers.”
Judge Chhabria also stated, among other conditions and caps on the shipments, that the air district could require “bottom-release rail cars to unload the coal into underground dust collection systems, and […] enclosed conveyance systems with dust control technology”
The judge’s conclusions relied on developers’ mitigation plans and commitments and on “the broad scope of the Air District’s regulatory power.” So we urge you to hold the developer accountable to the commitments they made to the judge.
The Air District can and must exercise the full range of its authority to protect our health and safety. This must include evaluation of each OBOT permit application with the utmost care, as well as imposition of regulatory conditions that reflect the best available emission reduction technology; publicly stated developer plans and commitments that were instrumental in convincing a federal district court judge to allow OBOT to handle coal; the large population that would otherwise be exposed to toxic coal dust; and existing cumulative pollutant burdens and community vulnerabilities.
Bay Area residents are counting on the District to protect our health and safety from the toxic emissions threatened by the proposed, dystopian coal export terminal in West Oakland.
Look for additional coverage of the Open Letter to the Bay Area Air District on Oaklandside, Bay City News, MSN, SFGate, KCBS, KQED, KALW, and KPFA.
Image: Ms. Margaret Gordon – Co-Founder and former Co-Director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project; now a Community Scholar with the Just Cities Institute – addressing the press on the urgent need for the Bay Area Air District to act decisively regarding the proposed West Oakland coal terminal. April 1, 2026, at the West Side Missionary Baptist Church. Photo credit: No Coal in Oakland.