174 results for author: No Coal in Oakland
NCIO challenges Japanese Bank: don’t fund Oakland coal terminal
In the last couple of days, two major Japanese banks have announced that they are limiting their investment in coal. This is of particular significance for No Coal in Oakland, as one of these banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), has been in discussion about providing financing for the construction of the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT) as a coal terminal to ship four million tons of Utah coal to the Japanese energy company JERA. Japan has been increasing its consumption of coal as it has retired nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster.
SMBC is the third largest bank in Japan. Its new policy calls for the “cons...
Shareholder resolution calls for Bank of Montreal to stop financing fossil fuels
On Tuesday, March 31, the Bank of Montreal (BMO) shareholder meeting will include a shareholder resolution calling for the bank to make a commitment to exclude or phase out financing for fossil fuels--including coal--in view of the “incongruities” between such financing and BMO’s public positions supporting sustainability. The resolution comes from John Harrington of Harrington Investments (HII), a socially responsible financial manager and NCIO supporter. For several years, NCIO waged a campaign to persuade the bank to drop its efforts to attract investment in an Oakland coal terminal, Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT). NCIO is ...
Would-be Oakland Coal Baron’s Bankruptcy Exposes Filthy Scheming
Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS) is the new corporate incarnation of the same five year old plot to ship millions of tons of toxic coal through Oakland's waterfront. But they've filed for bankruptcy. And in bankruptcy court, ITS is fighting off a hostile takeover by a hedge fund manager who wants to operate the coal terminal.
It's not the sort of bankruptcy that shutters a business … alas. Instead, it's the kind that gives a bankrupt business a second chance by supervising the reorganization of its finances. But to get that second chance, the business is required to disclose piles of memos, plans, budgets, and correspondence to the court, ...
NCIO responds to Tagami profile in EB Express
In December 2019, the East Bay Express ran a cover-feature profile of would be coal-developer Phil Tagami ("Phil Tagami is Not Backing Down," East Bay Express, December 10, 2019). Over the signature of of No Coal in Oakland's coordinating committee member Ann Harvey, who identified her affiliation with our ongoing campaign, NCIO responded a few days after the article ran (the letter was drafted collaboratively by several members of NCIO's coordinating committee). Though a number of letters-to-the-editor were published by the paper in response to the profile, the EB Express did not publish our letter.
No Coal in Oakland is therefore running its ...
Oakland Coal Fires Up Local Press
In October, we called attention to an article by Darwin BondGraham in the UK’s The Guardian, in which the reporter analyzed documents filed in bankruptcy court by would-be coal terminal operator Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS), Phil Tagami’s latest tenant for the Oakland Bulk and Oversize Terminal (OBOT). What BondGraham discovered: fossil fuel executives have been lobbying hard and pouring thousands of dollars into spin-doctoring to revive their effort to ship toxic Utah coal through Oakland.
The lobbying and spin-doctoring has continued in the months since then, with a series of articles in the Oakland Post and the East Bay Express, a stream ...
So-called “Oakland Protocol”: a coal industry falsehood and farce
On Halloween, the Oakland Post published an alarming article about efforts by longtime coal industry executives to revive plans for a coal terminal in West Oakland. No Coal in Oakland contacted the newspaper’s publisher, and was given an opportunity to respond to misstatements of fact and omissions in the article that appear to be part of a concerted plan to lobby key community leaders to overturn the city’s coal ban, as reported by Darwin BondGraham in a Guardian article just a week before.
In the October 31 Post article, Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS), would-be operator of the proposed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, touted its plan to ...
NCIO & San Diego 350: beware fossil fuel contamination in “black box” pension fund investments
No Coal in Oakland's warning against infrastructure investment proposals that conceal fossil fuel projects reached hundreds of pension fund investors in San Diego last weekend. It couldn't have happened without the vital support of activists in San Diego 350 who mobilized to leaflet that city's convention center.
On October 19 through 21, thousands attended the opening days of the 65th Annual Employee Benefits Conference in San Diego. NCIO composed and financed a leaflet warning against “black box” investments similar to the “teaser” that the Bank of Montreal prepared to lure unwitting investment in the Oakland Bulk and Oversized coal ...
Fossil Fuel Execs lobbying to overturn Oakland coal ban
As reported by Darwin BondGraham in the UK's The Guardian this morning, fossil fuel executives have been lobbying hard and pouring thousands of dollars into spin-doctoring their attempts to ship toxic Utah coal to Asia via the proposed, but now leaseless, Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal on the city's waterfront, near the foot of the Bay Bridge.
From BondGraham's article, "How fossil fuel execs lobbied black leaders to overturn a California city’s coal ban":
Last spring, an unusual meeting took place in Oakland, California, between the NFL star Marshawn Lynch and fossil fuel company executives who are seeking to build a marine terminal that ...
Climate Justice activists demand closure of U.S. concentration camps for migrants and refugees
August 2019 is a "Month of Momentum": thirty days of protest at the San Francisco office of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). On each day of the month, a different community of Bay Area residents and activists has committed to protest during the noon hour at the ICE office, at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco. Climate Justice activists from throughout the Bay Area took our turn on Monday, August 5th.
Activists across the progressive spectrum are demanding that the U.S. government's concentration camps (a.k.a. "detention centers") be shuttered; insisting that the U.S. immediately stop separating children from their families and caretakers ...
Planning Commission delays recommendation on Richmond Coal ordinance
The challenges of just transition played out dramatically at the Richmond Planning Commission on July 18. The commission was considering a proposal to recommend that the City Council adopt an ordinance phasing out the use of the Richmond Levin Terminal (RLT) for storage and handling of coal and petroleum coke (pet coke). The meeting chambers filled to overflowing, with environmental activists outnumbered by members of the building trades unions. Dozens of people spoke passionately about the health impacts of these commodities; and others, equally passionately, about the threat of losing their jobs—the familiar divide. After 11 pm the commission ...