Fossil Fuel Execs lobbying to overturn Oakland coal ban

  • Photo credit: Edward Kimmel via Wikimedia Commons. Image from the 2017 Climate March in Washington DC used in this article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.

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 would ship millions of tons of coal through the city each year. According to one of the investors who set up the meeting, its purpose was to discuss using project revenues to fund local charities.

Nothing came of it, but over the past year the coal terminal’s backers have set up dozens of similar gatherings with city officials, pastors, labor leaders, and other influential locals as part of a broader lobbying campaign to overcome opposition to coal, according to documents recently obtained by the Guardian.

Their main objective, according to internal company records made public as part of a recent bankruptcy, is to convince Oakland’s leaders to drop a legal appeal against the project.

Read the gory details in The Guardian.

No Coal in Oakland thanks Darwin BondGraham for his years of tenacious and excellent reporting on the community’s commitment to keep Oakland’s waterfront coal-free…

The fight isn’t over. Oral arguments in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals are coming up on November 12th in OBOT vs. City of Oakland, a case in which U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria ruled against the city in May 2018. Please join us that morning at the San Francisco hearing (details).

 

 

 

Thanks to Edward Kimmel via Wikimedia Commons for the image from the 2017 Climate March in Washington DC used in this article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0.