City of Oakland, Sierra Club and SF Baykeeper Move to Dismiss Coal Industry’s Lawsuit As Trial Looms

Grand Lake Theater marquee deploring Tagami's lawsuit against the City of Oakland
On Tuesday, December 5, the City of Oakland and Sierra Club/S.F. Baykeeper filed two powerful motions calling on U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria to dismiss developer Phil Tagami's lawsuit against the City of Oakland, Oakland Bulk & Oversized Terminal, LLC vs. City of Oakland.  The lawsuit is being financed by Bowie Resource Partners, a Kentucky-based coal company with plans to ship tens of millions of tons of Utah coal through Oakland if Tagami's lawsuit is successful. The defendants' two motions for summary judgment argue that there is no need for a ...

Read More


Tagami Files for Summary Judgment in OBOT v. City of Oakland Case

Oakland Youth turn out for the Zombie March on Coal to Phil Tagami's home, 2017-10-30. Photo credit: Kim White.
On Monday, November 20, developer Phil Tagami's lawyers filed a motion for summary judgment in the United States District Court case Oakland Bulk & Oversized Terminal, LLC vs. City of Oakland. Summary judgment is a procedure by which some or all of a case is decided in favor of one side or the other prior to trial on grounds that there are no contested facts that would affect the outcome.  Oakland Bulk & Oversized Terminal, LLC (OBOT) is the corporate shell through which Tagami and his partners hold a 66-year-lease on a corner of the former Oakland Army Base near ...

Read More


Youth encircle Tagami’s Rotunda building to launch #DeCOALonize Oakland boycott

Youth march around Phil Tagami's Rotunda Building demanding the coal developer #DeCOALonize Oakland. Photo credit: Sunshine Velasco from Survival Media Agency
80 people encircled the Rotunda Building, half of them young people, mostly of elementary school age, with placards proclaiming “Boycott the Rotunda,” “Youth vs. Coal,” and “DeCOALonize Oakland.”

Read More


Zombie Coal-pocolypse: hundreds march against coal to Tagami’s home

Oakland Youth turn out for the Zombie March on Coal to Phil Tagami's home, 2017-10-30. Photo credit: Kim White.
On the eve of Halloween, Monday October 30th, hundreds of middle and high school students, union members, and Oakland activists participated in a “Zombie March on Coal” to the home of Oakland developer Phil Tagami to protest his attempt to overturn the city's 2016 ban on the storage and handling of coal in Oakland. In the wake of the fires in the North Bay, when Oakland experienced some of the worst air quality in recent memory, residents can't accept that Phil Tagami has brought a costly lawsuit against the City of Oakland in an attempt to bring even more air ...

Read More


Open Letter to Tagami published in EB Express and Oakland Post

Open Letter to Phil Tagami - East Bay Express-cropped - 25 Oct 2017
No Coal in Oakland's Open Letter to Phil Tagami — calling on the would-be coal developer to "dismiss his lawsuit against the people of Oakland," and "get to work on a plan that makes sense for one of the few remaining undeveloped parcels on our public waterfront" — was published late last week in the East Bay Express and the Oakland Post. To-date, over 66 organizations and 1,800 individuals have signed on. The text of the letter follows: We call on Phil Tagami to dismiss his lawsuit against the people of Oakland and give up his plan to build the largest coal ...

Read More


State of Washington Kills Final West Coast Coal Export Project

Millenium Coal Terminal Demonstration
Today,  the Washington State Department of Ecology denied a permit for construction of the giant Millenium Bulk coal project that would have shipped 44 million tons of  coal from Wyoming and other Western States to markets in Asia.  This marks the 7th straight defeat for efforts to ship coal through West Coast ports in efforts to revive the dying U.S. coal industry. As in Oakland's rejection of the coal export facility proposed for the former Oakland Army Base, community mobilization and exposure of the real hazards and costs of expanding coal transport and consump...

Read More


Stopping construction of a dirty cement factory in Vallejo

The Vallejo Marine Terminal (VMT) is a proposed deep water port designed to bring slag from China and/or Japan for a proposed plant—Orcem—to grind into cement on the Vallejo waterfront at the mouths of the Napa River and Mare Island Strait. The Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for this proposed project was released in September 2015, and Fresh Air Vallejo formed when a group of near strangers came together to read and analyze the 788 page DEIR and 3,000 pages of exhibits. These citizen-analysts found that the Orcem/VMT operation would reactivate long-unused ...

Read More


Tagami gets thumbs-down from Police Commission Selection Panel

East Bay Express reports Police Commission picks
No Coal in Oakland mobilized in opposition to the possible appointment of Phil Tagami to the new civilian Police Commission. We are delighted to report that the Police Commission Selection Panel did not include Tagami in their proposed slate, which will be submitted to the City Council for final approval. Tagami offered himself as one of 146 candidates for the commission, and remained in the running when the Selection Panel narrowed the field to 28. According to one member of the Selection Panel, "The Selection Panel has received over 50 emails in opposition to Phil ...

Read More


Tagami Police Commission interview: join NCIO Tuesday at 7pm

Coal promoter and developer Phil Tagami is currently a candidate for a position on Oakland’s Police Commission. No Coal in Oakland is horrified at the prospect that this man—who proposes to bring toxic coal into Oakland and has sued the City to overthrow its popular ban on coal—could be chosen to represent residents on a city commission that will provide civilian oversight of the Police Department by reviewing and proposing changes to Department policies and procedures, requiring the Mayor to appoint any new Chief of Police from a list of candidates provided by the ...

Read More


Let’s Keep Coal Promoter Tagami off the Oakland Police Commission

Phil Tagami is currently a candidate for a position on Oakland’s Police Commission.   This powerful new commission will provide civilian oversight of the Police Department by reviewing and proposing changes to Department policies and procedures, requiring the Mayor to appoint any new Chief of Police from a list of candidates provided by the Commission, and having the authority to terminate the Chief of Police for cause. Out of an original 146 applicants for the four seats on the commission to be chosen by a selection panel, 28 were selected for second interviews.  ...

Read More