13 results for author: Steve Masover

NCIO at San Francisco’s “March for Science”

No Coal in Oakland turned out for San Francisco's "March for Science" on Saturday April 22, along with tens of thousands of Bay Area residents. Marches were held in 610 cities worldwide, from Washington, DC to Ann Arbor, MI, to San Francisco and many more across the Americas; underwater at the Wake Atoll in Guam; more than a dozen cities in Australia and New Zealand; a respectable scatter across Asia and Africa; and many dozens across the European continent. At San Francisco's march, Oakland City Councilman Dan Kalb spoke from the stage at Justin Herman Plaza, noting that science enabled the ban on transport and storage of coal in the city, enacted ...

First major hearing in coal ban lawsuit: April 20, 2017

Join No Coal in Oakland at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on the morning of April 20, 2017 to stand up for Oakland's coal ban. At 10:00 am on that day, Judge Vince Chhabria will hold the first important hearing in developer Phil Tagami’s attempt to overturn the City’s ban on coal storage and handling at the future West Gateway marine terminal, his lawsuit Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal LLC v. City of Oakland. The Court will hear several motions at the hearing. Of great importance to No Coal in Oakland is a motion by Sierra Club and San Francisco Baykeeper to be accepted as “intervenors” in the lawsuit. The environmen...

Utah coal miners, Oakland activists featured in Al Jazeera news segment

On February 3, 2017, Al Jazeera English posted a video segment Global warming fears throw Utah Coal industry into crisis. The segment includes 2016 interview footage of West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project Co-Director Ms. Margaret Gordon, who is also a co-coordinator of No Coal in Oakland. (The segment, also posted to the Al Jazeera English YouTube channel, is embedded below.) At the opening of the Al Jazeera report, retired coal miner Dennis Ardohain points out names of hundreds of coal miners killed in mine accidents engraved on a monument he helped to build. The commemorated miners include boys as young as thirteen and fourteen years ...

NCIO Campaign Report Published, August 2016

In August 2016, No Coal in Oakland member Margaret Rossoff, following consultation with several others in the group, completed a report summarizing the NCIO campaign's origins, strategy, tactics, organization, and key documents. In the report's introduction, Rossoff explains: Many activists have expressed interest in an account of how the No Coal in Oakland campaign was organized.  This article is a response, but is not a history.  It is structured thematically rather than chronologically, and the many amazing activists and organizers are not identified by name.  Some of our initiatives came from organizations and some came from individual ...

Victory: Oakland’s Coal Ban Becomes Law

On July 19, 2016, the Oakland City Council approved the ban on coal initially approved three weeks before. The vote on the council's Consent Calendar, on which the coal measures were included, was unanimous: 8-0, with all council members in attendance. Prior to the vote, No Coal in Oakland member Aaron Reaven thanked the council for approving the coal ban at its special meeting on June 27, 2016, and asked that changes to its process for hearing community input be considered, to prevent "political thuggery" in which paid political operatives are permitted to shout down engaged and concerned citizens, as occurred during the special meeting. S...

City Council Votes 7-0 to Ban Coal in Oakland

In a resounding victory for No Coal in Oakland organizers and allies, Oakland residents, the Greater Bay Area community, and Planet Earth, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously on June 27, 2016 to prohibit shipping and handling of coal in Oakland. At a special meeting that began at 5:00 pm and packed the council chambers and three overflow rooms at City Hall, seven of Oakland's eight councilmembers heard summaries of reports by Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio and public health expert Zoë Chafe. Testimony was offered by many dozens of Oakland's children, elders, faith leaders, workers, business owners, pediatricians, teachers, and ...

Hundreds rally in Oakland to demand No Coal – No Compromise

Hundreds came out to City Hall (Oscar Grant Plaza) to call for "No Coal - No Compromise" on a sunny Saturday afternoon two days before the Oakland City Council takes up a proposed ban on coal storage and handling at the city's export terminal at a special meeting, Monday 27 June at 5pm. No Coal in Oakland activist Michael Kaufman reminded the crowd of Monday's special meeting of the City Council, and outlined what each Oaklander can do to influence the council vote -- whether they were able to attend the rally or not. Details on how to phone and e-mail your support for a ban on coal in Oakland in advance of Monday's 5pm meeting is included at the ...

Call for federal investigation of Oakland coal terminal financing

A letter sent by conservation, health, and good-government organizations to Attorney General Loretta Lynch  on June 20, 2016 calls for a federal investigation into potential legal and ethical violations in Utah's $53 million publicly funded loan to fund a coal export terminal in Oakland. The letter was sent on behalf of Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, Alliance for a Better Utah, HEAL Utah, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, the Grand Canyon Trust, Living Rivers, and the Center for Biological Diversity. As the Salt Lake City Tribune reports: The groups allege Utah leaders are brazenly circumventing common-sense limits on ...

Public health experts expose coal hazard ‘protection’ fallacies

Coal proponents have advertised they will use new technology to shield port workers and their West Oakland neighbors from the toxic, corrosive, and explosive dangers of transporting coal through the former Oakland Army Base. But fantasies can't protect Oakland's workers and families from coal's frighteningly real threats. Up to 620 tons of dirty coal dust blown into West Oakland every year? That's what a Public Health Advisory Panel on Coal in Oakland figures in their report, An Assessment of the Health and Safety Implications of Coal Transport through Oakland [1]. And that's just for starters. As the Health and Safety report explains, coal ...

TLS deception on coal dust exposure: uncovered

Terminal Logistics Solutions (TLS), the company that aims to transport dirty coal through Oakland at perilous risk to public health, has been spinning fictions about safety measures they claim will mitigate health risks -- measures which have never been tested for effectiveness, contrary to repeated claims by TLS. In a thorough and well-documented investigation, NCIO's Lora Jo Foo has unmasked the truth that the "proven technology" TLS claims it will use to cover rail cars carrying coal have never been tested for effectiveness in controlling fugitive coal dust. Worse, the claim made by Jerry Bridges of TLS, that the Federal Railroad Administr...