13 results for author: Ted Franklin
Coal Trial Ends; Decision Expected By Xmas Weekend
The trial of Phil Tagami’s state court breach of contract case against the City of Oakland came to a close on the first day of December, four and a half months after it began. It's now up to Judge Noël Wise to decide what remedy Tagami has won.
Coal Trial Ends: Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Testimony Ends. Judge’s Decision on Who Broke the Lease Expected in October.
Trial Begins in Oakland Coal Case
After four and a half years of preliminary skirmishes, lawyers today delivered opening statements in developer Phil Tagami’s legal battle to avoid eviction from the West Gateway, a 19-acre piece of West Oakland waterfront owned by the City of Oakland. Phil Tagami and associates plotted to build and operate an export terminal that would bring coal by rail from Utah for shipment overseas.
The trial will hinge on the question of who broke the lease Tagami signed with the City in February 2016.
The City of Oakland terminated Tagami’s lease in November 2018 after the developer failed to meet the August 2018 deadline to begin construction of a ...
Hedge Fund Ousts Coal Exec in Bid to Build Oakland Export Terminal
On Election Day -- November 3, 2020 -- Los Angeles hedge fund manager Vikas Tandon took over the company formed to build a coal export terminal in West Oakland. Judge Joan Lloyd of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Louisville, Kentucky anointed Tandon the new CEO of Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS). Tandon’s company, Autumn Wind Lending LLC, is now the sole owner of ITS, though whether ITS’s mission to ship coal through Oakland will change under new ownership remains unknown.
For seven years, ITS’s ousted CEO, coal industry veteran John J. Siegel, Jr., dreamed of building a coal export facility in Oakland. In September 2018, he signed a ...
Will Throwing John Siegel a $20 Million Lifeline Buy Utah a California Coal Terminal?
Today, a coalition of Utah environmental and public interest organizations called on the Utah Legislature to turn down an urgent bailout request from the bankrupt developer of the embattled coal export terminal project in Oakland, Calif.
How Phil Tagami Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Coal
Phil Tagami assured City officials and the public in Decenber 2013 that he had no interest in coal; by April 2014, he was in bed with the coal industry where he has remained ever since. Did the prospect of financial ruin change his mind?
No Coal Activists Voice Cautious Optimism After Ninth Circuit Hearing
After a packed Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing Tuesday, No Coal in Oakland activists are cautiously optimistic that the court will overturn District Court Judge Vince Chhabria’s May 2018 decision concluding that the City of Oakland breached its contract with developers.
Utah Coal Company’s $53 Million Money Grab for the Oakland (or Ensenada!) Coal Terminal
For two years, $53 million of public funds have been sitting in limbo in Utah while the City of Oakland’s ban on coal is being tested in the courts. Utah legislation is designed to free up the money for developers of a coal export terminal, but will it be in Oakland or in Baja California?
City of Oakland and Allies Fire Opening Salvos in Appeal to Restore Coal Ban
The City of Oakland and its allies have filed the first round of briefs in the legal battle to overturn U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria’s May 2018 decision striking down Oakland’s resolution banning the storage and handling of coal at a West Oakland site near the Bay Bridge.
Canadian Bank Plays Big Role in Keystone Pipeline, Oakland Coal Terminal
Although “Bank of Montreal” is hardly a household name in the U.S., Bank of Montreal is now playing an outsized role in efforts to build Oakland’s proposed coal terminal as well as the Keystone XL Pipeline newly revived by Trump Administration proclamation.
The Canadian bank’s role in arranging financing for developer Phil Tagami’s coal terminal was first dissected over a year ago in No Coal in Oakland’s earlier post, “Coal’s Frontmen in Oakland: Who Owns TLS?” The article revealed how Jeffrey Holt, a Bank of Montreal investment banker stationed in Utah, orchestrated the deal that would provide $50 million of Utah public money ...